Vandread Another Leader
by The Pokemon Traveller
Summary: Join the adventures of Vandread from the very beginning again. However this time another man is take prisoner when the pirates invade the Men's ship. His name Nix Dark Heart and he is one man who won't go down without a fight. Contains:Oc x Meia
1. Men,Women and a Hero

Chapter 1

Men, Women and a Hero

In a time many years ahead of our own lives, earth has expanded in its technology advances dramatically. The reason for this advancement was earth's resources were slowly beginning to be used up by its ever growing population. Seeing only disaster ahead, earth's people began to colonize to other planets to find a new way of life.

After years of searching, they found two suitable planets by the earth travellers. They named their found planets Tarak and Mejere. They were perfect for earth's plans to continue the human race with rich minerals, clean air and fresh water it looked like the human race could go on loving their peaceful lives.

However, something went wrong during colonization. The women and men from planet earth started to grow apart on their different planets and like so many of the generations before them war broke out between them.

Since then years have passed and these two sexes have now forgotten about their once peaceful past on planet earth. Instead their minds are filled with their elder's stories of the other sex being monsters and murders of their own kind.

The war lead to a separation between the sexes and planets became known as Tarak, the planet of the men while Mejere became the planet of the women. Mortal enemies for life, it would seem this feud would last forever between the two. Yet here is the story of how one young boy changed everything.

His name was Hibiki Tokai, a sixteen year old boy who had been rated as a third class citizen by his Male government. He was thrown into the mechanic workforce of his planet so he could help defeat the women of Mejere once for all by manufacturing the men's new super weapon, The Vanguard.

The best description of the boy is he wore nothing more an orange sleeveless jacket with a black coloured long armed shirt underneath, a pale brown cloth wrapped around his dark brown trousers and on his feet black shoes which his gray socks stuck out off.

He lived with a man he called grandpa until he moved into the factory, where the men's new super weapon was being produced. Only to grow tired of factory life, Hibiki wished for more excitement in his life. He wanted to see the world not be stuck making vanguards for the rest of his life and so on the launch day of the Ikazuchi, a ship formerly used during the great colonization of earth but now refitted by the men to become their battleship. Hibiki boasted to his working factory friends that he could steal a vanguard from the battleship and bring it to them as trophy.

His factory friends merely bushed this bet off as one of his boyish pranks he was always playing. However, Hibiki was serious. So serious was this young teen that during the live speech of the prime minster of Tarak our young hero managed to sneak abroad the Ikazuchi using just a rubber glove and luck.

Now inside the ship, Hibiki found his way to the Vanguard storage area where he claimed his long lusted prize. Making the selection of a vanguard with his marked part on it from the factor, the teen moved on to his plan to get his prize out. Yet what the teen did not account for was the prime minister's early launch order.

The Ikazuchi locked down sealing off every escape route and any chance of getting out. Hibiki couldn't believe his plan had failed him this close. But he wasn't going give up now. He clenched onto the vanguard he wanted so much and prayed that one way or another, he would be able to escape and return home.

Meanwhile in the grand hall of the Ikazuchi, a party was being held for the launch of the new battleship. All the soldiers of the men's army gathered to drink and celebrate the launch. Yet there was one man who was very quiet about the whole affair. He stood at the back wall of great hall watching the party with a small cup in his right hand taking sips from time to time. That was until a soldier disturbed him by asking him if he was enjoying the party.

"As your commander I have to say yes." The quiet man started before adding. "But personally, I hate parties."

Taken back by the answer the solider did nothing to stop the quiet man walking away. He knew this quiet man was commander Nix Dark-heart, leader of vanguard squadron 227. He was easily identifiably to any solider due his short, spiked up sliver hair, his ice-cold blue eyes and the stern look he always wore on his face.

A commander like Dark-heart wore the dark brown Tarak uniform of matching shirt and trousers very well along with its tall black boots and black chest strap where combat weapons were kept. Yet the only difference on his uniform to a normal male soldier's was a small black shield patch with gold trimming around it located on his upper right arm with the letters VC stitched inside the shield. This was the symbol of his rank and the very reason other soldiers never felt the need to question him.

For this man made his way to this rank through building both his mind and body in the men's army. He was known for his strict leadership and wide military knowledge yet amongst the soldiers, he also was believed to be crazy. Due to the fact he also told his troops that he never felt at home on the men's planet. Instead he felt he'd belong elsewhere in the universe. But until he found out where, he would go where his mind took him.

The party went on for a little while longer until they soldiers were hushed for the Prime minister's speech.

"Men today we take back our pride as men." The Prime Minster began. "For today, we have a new weapon, which will destroy the women once and for all. Behold!"

Behind the minster, huge red curtains withdrew to reveal the new weapon. The soldiers began cheering and clapping as they witnessed the unveiling of the Tsukumo version Van-type Fighter aka the Vanguard. A fighting robot built with arms, legs and an almost human shaped body except bigger and it looked more like a monster with its one eye shaped hole in its head then a human mech.

However the cheering and shouting stopped when our young hero was spotted hanging onto his vanguard.

"Hey, Isn't that a third-class citizen?" One of the soldiers called out. The other soldiers couldn't believe it. How could this citizen have smuggled onto a ship like this?

The Prime minister was furious at the intrusion. How dare this teenager ruin his ceremony? At once he ordered the boy to be capture immediately by the ship guards.

Hibiki knowing he had to escape jumped onto a centre statue on the stage where the prime minster spoke and began kicking furiously at any guard that tried to grab him.

"Hey leave me alone, Get off me!" He yelled knocking a guard back with a kick. For the soldiers it was amusing to watch the guards get knocked away by the boy's kicks. They shouted and cheered on the boy as they watched him fight. However, the fun soon ended when Nix stepped in.

The commander appearance from the crowd silenced them. They all watch as he walked slowly up to the attacking teenager and grabbed the incoming left kick with his right hand. The teen tried to wiggle free from his grip but Nix yanked him off the statue on onto the ground. A painful grunt was from the teen as he hit the solid floor but the commander wasn't finished. Letting the teen leg, he placed his right booted foot on the teen's left ankle and applied pressure stopping the boy from trying to wiggle away.

"Third rate citizens should learn their place in this world." Nix mocked as teen grit his teeth in pain. Feeling this was enough, Nix lifted his boot off the teen's leg. The teenager tried to get up, but Nix grabbed the boy by his hair before signalling to two guards to take the teen away. They grabbed the beaten boy by the arms and lead him away to a laser beam barred storage room deeper in the ship.

After being thrown in roughly, the teen angrily complained. "Hey, just don't dump me in a storage room. At least put me in a real prison!"

The guards explained to him that the storage room was original a cell so he should simmer down a bit.

Hibiki didn't like his situation one bit and when the guards told him the prime minster had decided to give him the type of public execution that wasn't quick and painless Hibiki flipped out. He shouted and threated the guards with words of violence but his efforts were in vain.

The guards just ignored him and asked a nearby small white floating Navi-bot to keep an eye on him. The bot agreed allowing the guards to return to the party but Hibiki wasn't happy about being guarded by a bot. He mocked the bot from his cell only to receive a small electric shock from the bot as punishment.

It looked like our hero's tale would be ending sooner than he thought. Yet fate itself seemed to have had a different ending for this teenager.

For back on the bridge of the Ikazuchi, a small unknown energy signature had been detected on the outside of the ship. The Prime minster and his generals came from the party to investigate the matter but before the prime minister could get any more details from the bridge crew. There was a loud crashing sound.

Something had impacted the ship from the outside.

"What was that?" The prime minster yelled angrily. His second in command informed him that they were under fire from ships belonging to the women. Instantly the prime minster ordered the protection of the Ikazuchi as a first priority. But the attacking women already had the ship right where they wanted it.

Above the Men's fleet, a small red ship appeared from the darkness of space. This was the women flagship and on its bridge a dark-skinned woman watched the battle with an old woman standing next to her.

"Well captain. It looks like we caught a big one." The dark skinned woman said to the old women. The old woman opens her tired eyes and replies," hmm…yes. I guess today is our lucky day."

It may have been a lucky day for the women but on the Ikazuchi the male crew were in turmoil. The ships alarms blared as the crew began their counter attack against the invading women but none could stop the women breaching the Ikazuchi's new sections.

The prime minister growled in anger hearing this from his bridge crew monitoring the situation. The woman in his mind had used deplorable tactics. Hiding in the background fire meant his men's normal fighters had no chance to fight back without the risk of damaging his flagship.

Seeing this situation as his last stand, the prime minister orders the vanguards commanders to action. His second in command argues that most of the pilots under the commanders were just trainees. They'd never be able to fight a full trained women unit. But the prime minister would not listen to this agreement.

"If we don't use our newest weapon now, we'll bring shame to our forefathers," He argued back. The second in commander knew the minster was right and so the order was launched.

Vanguard soldiers rushed to the nearest Vanguard lead by none other by Nix. Some managed to launch but other weren't as lucky as the women began to disable the launch pads and forced to surrender.

Knowing the fate of their comrades, several of launched Vanguard managed to latch onto a red ship that was flying by the launch bay.

"Hey, what are these things? They're getting in my way." The women pilot inside the red ship yelled, trying to shake more vanguard them off her ship.

"Don't worry about the Vanguards, concentrate on the enemy flagship." Her commander ordered over the radio. The red ship women pilot nodded and returned to the attack.

The battle was long and hard for the men and soon Nix found him-self shot down by two pursing women ships. His vanguard crashed into the Ikazuchi's grand hall with a mighty thud. Flinging him forward toward the vanguard command screen he was only just saved by his seatbelt holding him back from head-butting the Vanguard's control screen.

With a quick shake of his head, the commander released himself from the stuck fast belt and began clambering out the broken Vanguard cockpit.

The sight outside the vanguard wasn't a pretty one. The hall now looked like bomb sight with holes and bits of tables and chair everywhere it was no longer the great hall it was a few minutes ago. But another sad sight to Nix was the shot down vanguard. He hated seeing such a masterful built machine wrecked. Still he knew this wasn't he time to be like this. Knowing he had no chance to get airborne again with his last vanguard; he began to scout for an escape ship.

Yet that in it-self would be a difficult task. For several women invaders had already managed to land their ships in the docking bay. The men soldiers in the docking bay tried to fight back, but the women space suits gave them the appearance of monsters sending the men running for their life.

It seemed a clear victory for the women but as the fighting went on as a blue women's ship sped through the docking bay at such a high speed that it nearly hit the invading women. The young monster suited women inside was yelling at the top of her voice that she couldn't stop the ship. But nobody heard her as she sped on.

Hibiki on the other hand seemed to having all the luck. Having managing to escape from his cell by using his guard navi bot's wires to fry the control to the laser grid after it had been thrown into the laser grid by the impacts. He was about to leave when he heard the navi bot make funny noises. It had been damaged and now was just rolling around making noises like a lost puppy. In his heart Hibiki knew he couldn't leave it behind. He quickly grabbed it and ran on.

Meanwhile Nix had been spotted by a group of invading women during his search and now they were in hot pursuit of him down one of the many hallways of the men's ship. Thinking quickly Nix dived into some rubble which hid him from his chasers, who soon found another man to chase.

"These women are tough." Nix thought getting out the rubble and running again. He was sure the women had already taken over the ship and the only sensible thing to do now was find a way to escape this doomed battle and Nix wasn't along in his thinking either.

The prime minister also thought this battle was doomed and reached for a lever near him. To which his second in command shouted, "Prime minister, no!"

He knew that the lever released parts of the Ikazuchi meaning that any men that were on those parts of the ship would be trapped with any women on them. But the minster did not care. He had to save what he could even at the cost of his men's lives.

No wasting any more time, the minster pulled the lever and seconds later explosions ran throughout the Ikazuchi as it began to separate. The soldiers left behind in the old sections began to panic as the ship separated. They had no escape route and the women soon came for them.

Meanwhile Hibiki began coming to after he had taken a fall from the ships engine walk way. He had managed to reach the engine room before the explosions and just as the blue ship from the cargo bay crashed through the engine room wall. Knocking both him and the women pilot from the blue ship onto the engine room floor, where they now laid on top of each other.

Still hazy from his fall, Hibiki moved his hand up to see what was laying on top of him. Only to have it met some squishy and a round. "Huh? What the heck is this?" He thought gripping tighter. Wondering what it was? Hibiki looked up and saw the monster mask of the women pilot that had been knocked from her blue ship.

In fright Hibiki pushed the masked pilot off of him and crawled back screaming, "Ah, it's a monster". He went to flee but stopped when the masked pilot women held out her left hand out and called out "Hold on!"

He turned back to see the pilot remove her mask. From the mask came a pale faced, long red haired and blue eyed young women.

"Oh wow, it's a real alien!" She squeaked happily looking at Hibiki, who was utter confused at the whole event. The red-haired pilot leaned closer to Hibiki and then began to slowly waving her hand in different ways. Unsure about what she was doing Hibiki repeated them back to the woman, who after looked very happy.

"Oh it worked. I made first contact" She said rather pleased with herself.

Feeling freaked out by this woman's actions, Hibiki turned on his heels and fled once again. Only to have the red haired women chasing after him shouting she wanted a photo with him. As the two continued on their merry chase Nix soon found self in a similar situation.

He had stopped outside a door leading to the men's locker room for a rest. He had been running away from more women and needed a break. But he had he had little time for breaks because a few seconds late. Bang!

A gun shot rang out from behind the door to the locker room followed by two female voices saying, "Stay right where you are." We'll shoot if you try anything funny."

Knowing his comrades were in danger, Nix opened the locker room door slightly to peep through to see the situation. What he saw were two monsters dressed women starting to remove their suits as captured men began to be herded down the hall to escape pods by more women.

"I know it's just a disinfectant, but I don't think I'll ever get used to the smell," A blonde- haired woman said appearing from one of suits. From what Nix could see the blonde-haired women wore a very revealing black dress with clear stockings and black high heels. But she was not the only monster suited women.

Shifting his attention to the next monster suit Nix saw a blue-haired woman appear from it. She was thin and wore a black and white suit of space armour. She ruffled her blue hair a bit and then began to look around. She seemed to have lost something.

"Have you see Dita, Jura?" The blue-haired women asked addressing her question to the blonde -haired women. But Jura just shook her head saying, "Sorry Meia no."

With this new found knowledge Nix believed he had found a way off the ship. If he could take this lost women hostage he could use her as a bargaining item to gain a ship from the women. With his set idea the commander stepped away only to have the door sensors activate.

The door flung open wide, the women turned around and there out in the open like a deer in headlight stood Nix. The two women held their fists at him with their ring on their middle finger glowing with small green tinge.

The blue haired women ordered Nix to get in line with the other men but Nix didn't. She asked again and still Nix ignored her. He was trying to figure a way out of this and so far nothing came to mind. Finally annoyed at the man ignoring her, the blue haired women gave Nix a choice. Get in line or die.

But Nix choose neither. Instead he told the blue haired women he had other plans. Before any word could be said, the blue haired women opened fire with her ring. Nix blocked the shot by closing the door and fled followed closely by the blue haired women and her blonde companion.

But being chased by women was the men's last worry for on the fleeing section of the Ikazuchi, the prime minister gave the order to destroy the old section.

"Prime minister, are you actually going to destroy the old section?" The first mate asked in shock. The prime minister lowered his head answering.

"I'd rather destroy it with my own hands than let it falls into the hands of women."

Unknown to what fate had planned for them; Meia and Jura now were looking for the man they were chasing. He had gone around a corner and magically disappeared from site.

"Forgot about the man Jura, I'm going to go look for Dita" Meia said to her blonde companion. But Jura complained about how she told Meia that she didn't want to bring a trainee along.

"Listen Jura," Meia said trying to explain the situation. "We're short-handed as it is, if you didn't want to be here, you should have spoken up earlier."

Jura knew her friend was right, but still made a show about having to search for the lost crew member. While they searched however a group of women led by the dark-skinned women from the bridge had begun to take control of the computers of the men ship when they noticed a missile signal coming towards them on the ship's radar.

"Captain what we should do?" The dark-skinned women asked over her radio to the old women on the women's ship. The old women answered that it would be a shame to lose the ship but lives were more important. She ordered a retreat to all her forces.

The dark-skinned women then radioed the order to Meia, who told her that she had lost Dita and would meet back on the ship once Dita was found. The dark-skinned women accepted this and began to make her way back to the ship.

During the radio conversation Meia and Jura had found their way to what was left of the engine room walkway. Where they soon heard a yell below the walkway they were on. Looking down they both saw their lost member chasing after a young man.

"Stop following me," he yelled running away from the lost member. But the women would not give up and they continued on their merry chase. From above the two women couldn't believe it.

"Did you see that Meia. She's already chasing men," Jura said watching the two run around like children. But as they watched the chase the two women caught sight another man. It was the man who had got away from them. He was racing to a Vandread lying in some rumble near where the chase was happening.

"He's going to try to fight back," Jura said worrying to Meia. But she was already on it. Carefully aiming at the man with her ring, Meia fired a small energy shot which hit their run away man in his upper right arm.

In a cry of pain, he fell to his knees gripping his shot wound with his left hand. He looked away from his wound to his shooters coming for him.

"Ah... plan b then." the man said reaching into his right Tarak jacket pocket. Meia and Jura just reached the bottom of the walk way before they saw the man with his hand in his pocket. Meia warned him not to move but before she could act to stop him, the man threw a flash bang grenade from his pocket onto the ground.

The grenade burst open and a blinding light emerged from it blinded the women.

"Ah my beautiful eyes", moaned Jura covering her eyes. But Meia was more concerned about the fleeing man. She tired her best to see through the flash but it was not good, the man had gone.

With the loss of the wounded man Meia and Jura drew their attention back to the chasing women and man. Still being chased the man began climbing a wall of the wreak room with women climbing after him. But she was stopped when she tackled to the ground by Meia. Looking behind her, the women gasped at the sight of Meia.

"What are you doing Dita? Meia barked at her. "You know better than to separate from the rest of the team,"

Dita apologised sadly about the whole affair before being helped up by Meia. Still Meia was happy to find her team mate as now they could leave. After radioing in to tell her captain they were returning to the ship Meia and her companies left for their ships

Hearing the women run off the man who being chased by Dita slowly poked his head out from his hiding spot to check they were really gone. Of course this man was Hibiki who after a few seconds of looking around couldn't see any signs of the women coming back. But what he did see was the vanguard he tried to steal. It was lying near the engine core of the ship and looked almost untouched.

The teen couldn't believe this luck. He could complete his bet and get out of this crazy battle. Quickly and happily he ran towards the vanguard only to meet by the other man who turned out to be Nix, who appeared from behind the ship still holding his right arm.

"You third class runt." Nix grumbled slowly walking toward Hibiki. "You've been lucky to live this far. But this vanguard is mine."

Hibiki wasn't going to let that happen. He had to live and if he had to take on the man who easily over power him to do that he would.

"No way, if you want this vanguard you gunna have to fight me for it," The teen bluffed. But Nix took this bluff as a challenge. He let his right arm go and took out his dagger from his black stash in his blood cover left hand.

Hibiki instantly knew he was in trouble. If he couldn't find a way to beat this man he would die in the very place he tried to get away from. He had little options but in the end his escape came down to a bit of good timing.

As Nix jabbed his dagger forward Hibiki rolled to his left side allowing him to avoid the dagger and put him in the perfect position to low kick Nix to the ground. With a swift kick, the commander fell to the ground with a loud thud giving Hibiki a few seconds to sprint to the vanguard cockpit.

But as Hibiki reached the cockpit he saw Nix get to his feet. He warned the teen that if he dared get in the cockpit it would his last act of stupidity he ever makes.

Hibiki however, ignored his threat and quickly locked himself in the vanguard cockpit before blowing raspberries at Nix. This was the final straw of Nix. This teen had pushed him too far. He was pain, he'd lost all his men and now this rotten teenager dared to mock him.

The only thing Nix wanted to do now strangle the teen. He run over to the vanguard jumped on its cockpit and began to pound away at its cockpit yelling, "If I get in there runt, your dead."

Inside the cockpit Hibiki was trying everything he could to launch the vanguard along with praying his attacker wouldn't break through the cockpit. It was a bad time for our hero. But the three women pilots weren't doing so well either.

Dita's ship had become stuck in some rubble and now she couldn't get out. Her team -mates tried to help, but the missiles were drawing closer and closer.

"There's no time we have to leave" Jura said from her ship. But Meia wouldn't leave a team member behind. She insisted they stayed until Dita was free. But slowly the missiles were growing closer and closer. Time was running out and it seemed the end of them all.

"Oh work you stupid thing!" Hibiki shouted hitting the controls of the vanguard. Suddenly the men's engine emitted a blue light that engulfed everything on the battle field. Leaving the once space battlefield clear and silent.


	2. Your best ally is your worst enemy

Chapter 2

**Your best ally is your worst enemy **

Unbeknown to the engulfed women and men, the men's engine had created a worm hole which carried them and their ships across to other side of the universe without the missile. This worm hole had saved their lives however; this was the only beginning of the stranded women and men's journey.

On the bridge of the women's ship, the old women captain awoke at her command desk holding her head in pain. She looked around the bridge to see her bridge crew awaking like her.

"This doesn't look like the afterlife. Where are we?" The old women asked bridge crew. But before she could get her answer the ship shook violently. The engine that had saved them from the missile had begun to consume the women's ship at a rapid rate.

"What the heck is going on? Is that engine trying to eat the ship or something?" The old women shouted watching her command desk screen monitor as light blue crystal shaped storks spread throughout the women ship. This was a serious situation and at once the old women captain ordered reports from all areas of her ship. Yet it wasn't only the women's ship being affected by the engine powers.

On what remained of the men ship, the five pilots that were consumed by the light were wakening. Meia was the first to awaken; she looked around to see she was back in the engine room. Expect this time; the whole area had been covered in light blue crystals.

"Jura" Meia called out trying to see if anyone else was there in the crystal mess. Jura acknowledged she was still alive with a shout back of "I here Meia" before coming to her side.

Mia was relieved, but then she remembered her other crew member. "Dita!" she calls out looking around worried. Dita awake and laying down hears her leader's calls and calls out from across the room.

"I'm over here! Something went bang and then boom! Then, I don't know what happened. But alien power is amazing."

Getting to her feet Meia sighed, she'd had enough worry today but looking around as the blue crystals began consuming and reshaping the room around her. Meia knew her worries not over yet.

Back on the bridge of the women's ship, the old women captain contacted several of the crew members to find out how to stop the crystal's from completely destroying their ship. From the information she received the men's engine used something call the Peksis program, a widely used ship control program used back during the colonization from earth.

However due to some unknown reason this program was now consuming and reshaping the two ships trying to fuse the two ships together. The only way to stop it was to strike the engine head on.

"So we got to get rid of it at the source then?" the old women captain asked her head engineer over her floating monitor screen microphone. The engineer answered that it was the best solution she could think of.

Taking this in the old women captain announced to the bridge she would be going to the men's ship along with other women name BC, Parfet and two guards. The women's trip to the conjoining ships was short thanks to the women recovery ship. But arriving on what remained of the men ship the captain and her party were amazed by the crystals structures slowly forming around them.

"How strange yet so beautiful," the captain said stepping onto the ship's ramp leading down to the floor. Meia, Dita and Jura greeted her at the bottom of the ramp.

"I'm sorry about this captain." Meia apologised. "It is my fault you had to come all the way up here for nothing".

But the old women smiled at Meia replying. "There's no need for you to apologize."

Knowing they needed to move on, they all began to walk around looking to find the crystal's source only to stumble across an unconscious Hibiki on the cold crystal floor. He had been ejected from the vanguard during the worm hole and now lay only a few inches away from his vanguard.

"This is the man Dita was chasing," Meia explained to her captain, who nodded. She looked closely at Hibiki commenting that it had been such a long time since she last saw one she wanted to know if their faces were really that funny looking?

Her crew didn't answer. Instead BC, the dark-skinned women from the last battle suggested the man be taken on-board as a prisoner until they had dealt with the current situation. The captain agreed with her suggestion and ordered her standing-by guards to take the man away.

However the guards went to pick Hibiki up, the sound of heavy breathing could be heard from the laying down vanguard. The guards wanted to investigate but the old women told them to wait. If this was what she thought it was then force wouldn't be necessary.

They all waited for a few moments until finally another man stumbled out from behind the vanguard. "It him "Meia thought seeing the man. Meia could see this man was the one who had escaped from them during their attack on the men ship.

"Stay where you are." Meia ordered to the stumbling man. He looked at the group of women before him before slowly sitting on the ground holding his right bicep. His actions caught the old women captain attention as not many men just sat down in front of them.

"It looks like you picked a bad time to make a move young man" She said looking at him with her old brown marble eyes.

The man gave a quiet snigger before putting his free hand up. Seeing this as his act of surrender, the captain ordered her guards to bring him along too. Staying quiet the man did nothing as the women guards cuffed him with black electronic handcuffs before leading him behind the captain and her crew who returned to the ships.

The first to be imprisoned out of the two men was Hibiki. Dragged by his cuffs, two women guards left him under a shelf in the cell which as he awoke a few minutes he managed to bang his head on the shelf. Cursing under his breath, Hibiki soon saw he was once again a captive on an unknown ship.

"It looks like I'm stuck behind bars again" He said miserably to himself. But this time however Hibiki was not alone. For in a dark corner of the cell a voice spoke to him.

"You're awake" it said calmly. Startled by the voice, Hibiki demanded to know who was there. The voice answered.

"My name is Duelo Mcfile. Do you have a name as well third class citizen?"

Looking closer into the corner Hibiki could see the features of his cell mate. He had long black hair which covered the right side of his tanned face, piercing blue eyes, an unbuttoned white doctor coat, tight black trousers and shiny black shoes.

"Hey, don't make fun of me. My name is Hibiki Tokai. And I'm not just another third-class citizen," Hibiki barked back to Duelo.

Duelo was impressed by the boy's confidence and asked him how he had managed to sneak onto the ship men's ship. Yet before Hibiki could answer, the small white Navi-bot that been thrown in with him began shaking and mumbling to itself beside him.

"Pyoro, Where am I? Who am I?" The bot asked scratching its head. The two men would have answered the bot but the lasers that kept them confined to the cell were suddenly cut off before two more women guards escorted in another man. Pushing him into the cell still cuffed they reactivated the lasers. The new man looked at the two men then quickly turned around to watch the women leave. They soon did and the man faced the other two imprisoned men again.

"And you are?" Duelo curiously asks the new man. The man answered that his name is Nix Dark heart, leader of squad 277. Duelo grinned at the answer; He knew what those numbers meant.

"A commander of the vanguards unit, I'm surprised they left you alive commander" Duelo said watching Nix sit down by the laser grid prison bars. Nix told him that the only reason he was alive was because the women wanted him alive.

"Besides," Nix added looking at Duelo with a cold grin. "This is not the time for idle chat. Wouldn't you agree officer Duelo?"

Duelo did agree and at once asked Nix if he had any idea what was happening to the ship? The commander however didn't know. But while the men had plenty of time to sit down and think about the situation. The women who had taken them hostage were in panic over what to do with the Peksis engine. The powerful engine had begun merging the two ships down to their cores and the women's engineer team were trying everything they could to stop it. But even if they did fix the ship the women knew there were still the men on the ship to consider.

The old captain knew this and decided it would be for the best if she met the men before deciding their fates. After all, she was still interested in who these men were. Ordering her first mate BC to go and collect the prisoners for a talk in the meeting room of the women's ship. The old captain slowly begins to make her way to the meeting room wondering what to do next with the men.

Meanwhile back in the cell, Hibiki and the navi bot he rescued were chatting. "Want me to fix you or something?" Hibiki asked seeing static flicker across the Navi-bot's screen.

"Don't make fun of me, I'm not broken" the Navi-bot retaliated. The two began to square up to each other before being stopping by Nix saying, "Enough chatterboxes, we have guests."

Hibiki wanted to respond to Nix comment but BC along with her two women guards walked up to the prison's laser bars with looks about them that made Hibiki worried.

"Women, what are we doing here? What are you going to do to me?" Hibiki yelled at them. BC told him he needed to calm down; he was in the safest place he could be.

But Hibiki didn't calm down. He flew into a panicked state shouting that the women were going to eat his intestines.

BC smiled at this. "You think." She was amazed at what this man thought of women. The guards beside her were in hysterics. "He thinks we're", "I know," they chuckled. Seeing how naive the man was BC continued.

"Well before dinner," She joked with the women guards continued to laugh behind her. "Perhaps you'll come with us and have a chat?"

The three men said nothing as the laser prison bars were dropped and they began to be heard out by the guards like cattle. Walking in a chain gang style, BC and a guard lead while another guard stayed behind the men. In the middle of them, Hibiki led Nix and Duelo but as he led the men, Hibiki became very interested with the women's guard wiggling bottom.

Thinking the women guard had something hidden there; he pokes it, only to receive a slap from the guard as thanks. Seeing the event from behind Nix grabs the boy by the back of his shirt and lifts him up.

"Hey what the hell are you doing?" Hibiki shouted causing BC and the two women to stop. Nix looks at the armed women warning him not to interact with another prisoner before dropping him to the ground. "Jerk" Hibiki commented before they were lead on again. Minutes of walking lead them to their destination.

The meeting room was small with one bench and not a lot else. Duelo and Hibiki were sat on the bench in front of the women while Nix was made to stand beside them. It fell quiet for a moment as the prisoners and guards took their places. That was until the meeting room doors opened again. This time Meia entered escorting yet another man with her laser ring pressed against his back.

"Oh you found another one?" BC asked her looking at the thin, blonde-haired soldier.

"Yes, this one was hiding in the platform," Meia responded with the man chuckling weakly. He was sat between Hibiki and Duelo on the bench and finally with all the captives seated and secured, the captain of the women came in to talk to them.

"My goodness I know we've rounded up some prisoners, but their just kids. Well expect that one" she said pointing at Nix. Nix grunts at the captain's observation, he thought the fact he didn't look like a child would have given her the hint. Still the meet and greet didn't last long before being interrupted by the white navi bot who tells the captain that he will tell her everything. But the captain doesn't listen. In fact she was more surprised to see such an old type navi bot still worked.

Entertaining as it was to watch the white navi bot try to be useful, Duelo finally spoke out. He wanted to know why the women had taken the ship and what was going on?

The old captain explained to him they were space pirates and the men's ship was like a pay check to them. But what was happening to the ship was something she didn't know about.

"This is our business you know. We'll gladly take the ship." The captain said looking at the four men. "But the problem is what are we supposed to do with you lot?"

Meia instantly suggested they got rid of the men. She felt the situation was already unstable enough and having men around would only make things more difficult. But the captain didn't seem too rushed to make a choice.

She suggested they think on the matter and decide how they're going to cook the men up. This sent shivers down the spine of the captured Hibiki and made Nix laugh. He'd met many women during his time as a commander but none like her.

Still with information on the men the old captain managed to figure about Duelo but asked Meia to explain about the remaining three men

Meia begins by explaining she doesn't know anything about the blonde-haired man. But as for the reaming two men she told her captain they were both attackers. Meia went on to say she saw the younger attacker meaning Hibiki trying to get into a power suit while the other older man meaning Nix had been on the run from her.

Hibiki was about to speak out at the idea of him being an attacking type solider when the blond-haired pilot elbowed him in the stomach to keep him quiet. But that didn't stop Nix passing a comment towards Meia.

"Can't be much an attacker with such lousy aim" he said holding onto his right bicep.

Meia mutters something under her breath trying to act professional before her captain. She did not like this man. He's rude, arrogant and always had something to say about someone. But the captain seemed rather found of him. She let out a small laugh at his comment before looking at him with a grin.

She had figured out this man was no an everyday attacker. No he was someone higher up the food chain. She wanted to say something back to Nix when a communication came over BC's radio interrupting her.

BC answered it to find it was from the bridge crew. They had spotted something approaching but it wasn't male reinforcements it was, "UFO'S!" Dita screamed down the radio.

The woman was right. Small spider-like space ships began to shoot at the conjoining ship making the weak walls inside the ship crumble and crack. Even in the room where the men and women talked began to shake.

At once the women attackers moved out to attack the invader. Meia left the room to aid them and BC radioed to the engineers to see if they could move the conjoining ship but they answered instantly that they couldn't. Even worse they told BC the defence systems for the ship weren't working either. It looked like the crew lives where in the hands of Meia and her attacking crew.

However things weren't well with Meia and her team. It seemed the Peksis had also changed their ships they call dreads. Everything controlled the same but even these new ships couldn't stand up to the overwhelming numbers of the enemy. It was beginning to look like the beginning of the end.

Back in the meeting hall, the enemy shots brought down a wall trapping a standing-by guard underneath. The other guard in the room tried to move her but Duelo instead she didn't. The guard held her ring at him telling him not to move. But Duelo tells her that he is a doctor and just wants to see what he can do for her.

The other guard accepts this and allows Duelo to try and help the trapped guard. Seeing this as a chance of freedom, the blond haired pilot says to the captain.

"Well looks like you could use some help. Truth is I'm Bart the helmsman." Nix coughed as he turned away trying not to laugh. He knew this was the biggest lie Bart had ever told. For Bart was not a helmsmen in fact he wasn't even a good solider. If anything Bart best description was a coward that spoke before he thought.

Still feeling luckily about his current situation, Bart suggested to the captain that the men and women call a cease fire until this situation is resolved. The women's captain thought this was a very interesting idea and agreed without hesitation.

"I'm glad you see it my way, now how about we shake on it?" Bart said holding his hand out to the captain who smacks it away with her walking stick.

"I don't wish to get chummy with you" she said looking at the shocked Bart.

She tells him that even within this ceasefire; the men would still be treated as prisoners. To which Bart replied with a nervous "yes mam". It seemed a peace treaty had been formed between the sexes and with that a plan began to form.

Duelo demanded he be taken to the sick bay to help his wall victim which the captain made happen. But while she was here, she order BC to take the smaller attacker to the storage area and ordered her remaining guard to bring Bart and Nix come with her. It seemed the captain had a plan of her own for these two.

The guard leads Nix and Bart to the bridge of the newly conjured ship where Bart was thrown into the ship's control portal at the very front of it without even as much as a question. The portal sucked him and luckily he seems to somehow to be able to make the conjoined ship flee. But the battle was still not over yet.

The captain watches the battle rage on a huge floating screen from the bridge. With Nix beside her watched by guard who brought him and Bart up.

"It's a foolish escape you know, you'll be chased. Nix said to the captain. She ignores him which only leads him to go on. "But perhaps you already know that. That's why you sent the boy to the storage area already stored with the vanguard you found him with".

The captain laughed at him. He was smart she'd give him that. "You know you're quite amusing for a man" she said, taking her gaze back to the floating screen. It may have not been her plan but what Nix foresight was right.

In the storage area BC gave the boy a talking too about proving himself as a man by fighting. At first Hibiki didn't believe her, but after being left alone to think with BC's radio. His heart and soul raced for it.

He radioed in to the bridge and demanded he be freed from his cuffs so he could fight. The captain was confused about his suddenly outburst, but BC who come back to the captain side had it covered. With a push of a button on her remote control pad she had, the boy was freed and raced towards his vanguard.

Meia's team was still fighting with the spider shaped ships when their received a message saying reinforcements were on their way. The women and Nix were shocked to see the vanguard flying clumsy through the enemy.

"That's our reinforcements?" Meia said in disappointment. But Dita was over the moon. She told Meia that it had to be the good alien coming to save them. But on the bridge Nix was getting a disappointed feeling in his chest. He continued to watch as the enemy's main forces stop advancing on the ship and locked on to the vanguard. The spider-like space ship collided and shot at the vanguard making it look rather weak.

"Well it doesn't look like he's going to live too long," the captain said watching the action. "Your right, But if he does make it, the world we've come to know might be turned upside down." BC replied also watching. Behind them Nix quietly prayed for the boy as he watched the vanguard slowly force its way towards the main enemy ship. He may have just met the kid but anyone brave enough to go into battle had the right to be prayed for.

Yet even after giving the boy his thoughts Nix could only watch as a woman's blue dread following the vanguard and the vanguard itself become caught in an explosion attack from enemy's spider shaped main ship.

It was a sad time, Meia had lost Dita who had followed the vanguard in her ship and the women had lost hope of surviving.

"Blasted child" Nix cursed to himself watching the bridge crew begin to move out from an escape. He should have gone in the kid's place. However all was not lost. From the fiery debris, a new ship was born.

A blue giant mobile fighter with two huge energy cannons on its back and two energy swords tucked away in its arms emerged from the flames like a god. Seeing it Nix uttered, "Unbelievable".

He watched as the new ship ripped through the enemy's main ship like it was made of paper.

"A machine created by a men fusing with a ship made by a woman, how strange." Nix thought, he was puzzled but also very interested. Yet even his interest couldn't stop him ending up back in prison after the vanguard and the blue ship returned home with Meia and the rest of her team.

The four men sat in their cell thinking about today's events but Nix had something else on his mind. "A Vandread," he said out loudly. Hibiki and Bart looked at him confused about what he was talking about.

"I shall call that ship you formed a Vandread" Nix said looking at Hibiki. "Since it's made up of both a vanguard and a ship which the women call a dread it makes sense to name it by using both names of the ships."

The others sighed at Nix thought. They thought Nix was crazy and instead of saying anything they kept quiet. After all, they were now just waiting for the women to decide their fates.


	3. Freedom at last

Chapter 3

**Freedom at last**

A new day dawns on the women pirates. They spend the day orbiting around their last battle field, repairing and modifying the inside of the new conjoined ship to suit their needs. However with some much of the women's ship engulfed by the Peksis crystals, some of the women were forced to move into the men's old living quarters. They were not happy, but at least they had rooms.

The four captured men still were stuck inside the same cell waiting for the women to decide their fate. And they didn't have to wait long. Meia, BC and the captain had a meeting that very morning.

The meeting started with BC reporting that the bridge, residential quarters and engine room of the women's ship had been engulfed by the Peksis. Fortunately the dread platform and Reg central remained undamaged from the crystal's attack. The crew were now cleaning up, installing new data bases and the men's bridge were the bridge crew now worked. Had stop over the ships garden.

With her report over, BC then allowed Meia to give her report. Meia explained that the three Dreads that have been transformed by the Peksis were too large for our original dread platform, so they had to modify the men's cargo platform to hold them. However while doing this the maintenance crew discovered that this part of the ship hasn't been used for a long time, meaning all the circuits and cables of the platform are decayed and useless.

The women captain nodded, she had been in a lot of trouble with ships before. But the current situation was puzzling to her. Not to mention the fact BC also reported that the ship was estimated to be about approximately two hundred and seventy days from their home planet.

"What did we do to deserve to be swept across the galaxy?" The women captain thought looking at the situation with disbelief. Still she had no time to complain. She had a crew and ship to take care of. Hoping for so good news the captain asked Meia if she had any information on the new enemy they faced yesterday.

Meia replied, "Not yet. My team was understaffed to do the research, so I sent some volunteers to investigate the battle site with a member from my team." The women captain nodded, she was sure Meia had sent the best. Even so the next items on the meeting list were important ones. How to deal with the captured men? And the current heating problem the ship was facing.

BC reported that Parfait, the head engineer. Was already on the task, but she couldn't determine a time the heat would return to normal. "I see, well if that's the case," The captain said with a grin.

"I want some girls to spray the men down to keep them cool. Don't want them dying on us now do we?" This was agreed by the two commanders and the meeting finally came to an end.

Within a few minutes after the meeting, the men were lead out of their cell and into another cell, where they were told to remove their clothes and stand still while they were sprayed with freezing cold water.

Hibiki complained about the water tempter being too cold, Bart scurried around like a small boy trying to avoid being hit by the water jets. Duelo stood his ground and took it and Nix seemed to be thinking too much to notice how cold the water was. But what the men did not know was that the captain and BC were watching them through a live steam on a monitor screen.

"So these are the only men left, huh?" The captain said, watching the men start to dry off with towel given to them by the women. Her sub-commander BC told her, "Yes. We'll have to rely on them until we can fully figure out the ship's systems."

The captain nodded, she remembered the battle yesterday where Bart had come along with Nix, only to be pulled into the men's bridge control portal. It was like the ship wanted him to drive.

"I've never seen anything like it before;" The captain thought, watching the men being escorted back to their cell. "It was almost like this ship has a mind of its own, how very unnerving!"

Yet even with this unnerving feeling the captain had no choice. She had to keep the men alive for they seemed to be the only ones who could move the ship. But back in the cell the way Bart was telling his story, anyone would think the rest of the men did nothing.

Ah yes, my comrades were dying left and right. It was mess until it became clear that I had to take control of the situation and fight to take back the ship from the women. Now fate has given me three new allies to fight on."

Bart story indeed went on so long that Duelo faded out, ignoring the whole thing. Nix sat facing the laser grid paying no attention to him and Hibiki drifts off into space.

'Man, this sucks. I thought I had changed, but it looks like I was wrong.' Hibiki thought as he closes his eye. But before he could doze off, Bart walked over to Hibiki snapping him out of his sleepy state.

"What in the world happened out there? What's up with that Vanguard of yours? And why did combine with the Dread?" Bart questioned the sleepy teen, who said nothing to the questioning helmsmen. Seeing he wasn't going to get answers from Hibiki, Bart then turned to Nix to see if he knew. But Nix didn't answer; he just sat down facing the laser grind.

"What a lot of use you are," Bart commented rudely.

Hearing this Nix said, "Come again junior?" At this Bart freaked out, he was scare of Nix and getting on his bad side was the last thing he wanted.

"Nothing, Nothing really, I was joking." Bart said with nervous tone.

Nix huffed at the man before he returned to his thoughts. But even as the cell fell quiet again, Bart and Hibiki both wondered what Nix was thinking about so hard. After all, they were prisoners to an overwhelming force of women. What was there to think about part from the end?

"How can you just sit there in this heat?" A sweating Bart asked Nix. Nix replies he was trained to deal with blazing heat waves and sub-zero blizzards. He knew where he could think and he didn't need some rookie questioning him.

Not wanting to bother Nix anymore, since he was rather scary. Bart went back to asking Hibiki about his vanguard. The young Tarak told him that he didn't know and what made him think he would tell after he socked him when they were talking to the women.

But Bart explained to Hibiki that he did it for Hibiki's benefit. However Hibiki didn't see it that way, responding to Bart's explanation with a loud and angry shout of. "You don't know when to shut up do you? There enough hot air in here as it is."

The two were about to bicker again, when Duelo stopped them by explaining to Hibiki that Bart was simple trying to take his mind of the current situation through conversation. Bart was amazed at Duelo explanation of his actions. He knew that it was a sign Duelo was what the men called an elite officer and even tried to rally Duelo to attempt a takeover of the ship.

Little did the half-witted helmsman realise that BC had heard his little rally as she stood in front of the laser grid to the cell. Immediately Bart noticed her once she asked if she could hear his little escape plan to which Bart insisted it was a joke.

BC said she would like to hear his jokes, but he'd have to come with her first. "As long as it's only a social matter," Bart joked before being pulled out from the cell. The other men watched as he was lead down the corridor by two guards and BC following behind.

"Do you think he's going to escape?" Hibiki asked the other two men. But they didn't answer, they knew Bart had something the women wanted, but what it was, was beyond them. After a few minutes the men returned to their usual sitting position before suddenly being flung across the cell by the sudden movement of the ship. They got to their feet, holding whatever boy part hurt the most.

"Looks like our chatterbox has started the ship, are you two all right?" Nix asked, holding onto his right arm again. Duelo answered with a simple yes, but Hibiki's response was a rather tough sounding, "yeah I'm fine. Just what was that?"

Duelo could conclude that somehow Bart had managed to start the ship. Nix agreed with this. After what he saw one the bridge that battle, he believed Bart was in fact the key to making this ship move.

It wen quiet in the men prison cell for a few moments before finally Duelo broke it.

"So it is true." He said, looking at Nix with a small grin. "You always do have your mind on the situation." Nix huffed back at the doctor before turning his back to him. What Duelo said was true, Nix always had his head on the current situation. But Nix wasn't going to admit it.

Neither was he going to admit to pain in his upper right arm. However the keen doctor Duelo manages to pick up on this and asked Nix if he could take a look at his bleeding right arm. Nix answers that he thought it was his job as a doctor.

Ignoring the commander's mocking, Duelo began to examine Nix's right arm. He rolled up Nix's right sleeve and soon finds the problem.

A small hold could be seen in Nix right upper arm, yet the depth of the wound was deep. Duelo concluded that Nix muscles may have been hit and the best form of treatment he could offer now was to cover it before infection entered.

Wasting no time, Duelo got to work. He ripped off Nix right sleeve and tied it around the hole tightly. Nix commented that Duelo better have good stiches after ripping off a part of his uniform. However Duelo answers he is a doctor, not a tailor.

This made Nix laugh gruffly allowing Duelo to tighten the make shift bandage without the commander being a pain to him. It was painful at first, but Nix soon regained full movement of his arm without the pain returning.

After Nix's short and brief thanks to Duelo, the three men sat down again. With no sign of Bart returning soon, the men began to relax. Hibiki feel asleep and began to mumble something about a person named grandpa. Concerned that Hibiki maybe ill, Duelo leaned forehead against the teen's forehead causing the half asleep Hibiki to knock the doctor back with a sudden push in surprise.

"What, What are you doing" Hibiki yelled at him. Duelo explained he was just checking his temperature. But Hibiki insisted he was fine and should not be checked for anything else.

"Except you were mumbling in your sleep," Duelo said looking at the boy with his uncovered eye. "Perhaps you could tell me who this grandpa his?"

Hibiki blankly replied that Grandpa is grandpa, no one special. He just raised him ever since I was kid.

"Funny I don't recall the first generation having parents like that." Duelo said curiously. He wanted to know more but soon it was his turn to go with BC. He was taken to the men's medical bay where a women bridge operator named Ezra had suddenly fallen ill.

At the door to the bay, Duelo asked BC why the women hadn't used their own medical equipment to tell them. BC told him that they couldn't due to ninety per cent of their ship was down including the medical bay. She asked if he wanted to know more, but Duelo didn't. He just wanted to examine the patient.

However the ship soon lost power, thanks to the ship driving itself into a blizzard filled nebula. Duelo snatched a radio off the guard with the sick women and radioed to engineering that he needed power to the medical bay now. But Paiway told him she was having trouble of her own. She had hooked Pyoro up to the ship main computer to analyse the ship system. But all the information she wanted was in men language.

Duelo suggested that he could read it, if he was there. Getting the doctor hint, BC allowed him to go. But BC had not finished yet. Thanks to the ship little take off the two women sent out to search the battle site for information where left behind.

Of course BC would usually suggest the captain have dreads sent out. But the captain radioed her while she in the men's old data room to tell her that the dreads were unable to launch due to the blizzard weather and that two of the dreads pilots Barnette and Jura were trapped on a makeshift in the men's cargo bay.

Hearing this BC told the captain she would look into them. But while BC was looking the ship dipped its bottom half into the blizzard howling ice filled winds. From what Paiway and Duelo had figured out from the data on Pyoro, the ship was using the cold to get rid of impurities it gained during it change and was once again changing the shape of the ship itself.

The situation looked pretty bad. But soon the captain, who was trying her best to keep cool with an ice pack on her head, got radioed by BC. She answered and listened as BC told her research lead her to believe that the vanguard could make it back through the nebula, rescue their left behind team mates and bring them back safely.

The Captain thought this was a good idea, but asked her fist mate was in the men part of the ship? BC replied was doing her bit as the captain first mate. The captain accepted this but didn't let BC go until she told her to send the other attacker to rescue Barnette and Jura.

"Are you sure that's wise?" BC asked the captain unsure. But the captain was sure after all where could he go to? BC saw her point and began to make her way to the cell.

Meanwhile in the cell Hibiki had stripped down to his underwear to try and cool down. To which Nix told him was the most unsociable thing he's ever seen someone do. But Hibiki didn't care he just lay on the cell floor trying to sleep. Nix however was more interested in the lacking number of guard that had walked by them.

Usually about five different guards pass their cell, but today not one. He was concerned and made sure Hibiki knew it by telling him. However Hibiki couldn't understand Nix's concern. Surely it was a good thing that there were fewer guards. But Nix explained that in his experience, fewer guards meant something is was happening.

"And I need to know what." Nix said, staring outside the cell again. He didn't have to wait long for his answer, for soon BC came before them. "Looking for something are we?" She asked standing in front laser grids

"I see you have a lack of guards, something taking their attention?" Nix questioned her, but BC had little time for this man's games. She told Hibiki she needed a favour from him. Hibiki was taken back at this. But listened as BC explained about the two left behind pilots and how his vanguard was the only ship able to launch in the nebula.

Hibiki argued that he had no reason to help the women, but BC soon told him that it wasn't the time for men and women to be fighting and besides wasn't it custom on the planet of the men for the strong to help the weak.

Hibiki finally gave in. But said he wouldn't do it again. He would never give in to the women threats. BC told him she was sorry if he thought it sounded like a threat, she thought it sounded like a favour. She turned off the laser grid and while Hibiki got changed back into his clothes, she told Nix he had an order from the captain.

"An order, your captain places her trust in people very quickly," Nix commented to her. However BC suggested the reason the captain called it an order was because she knew a man commander would never disobey an order from someone above him.

Nix grinned, these women were good and without any further comment Nix asked BC to give him the order.

She explained that two of their dread pilots, Barnette and Jura had got themselves trapped in the makeshift cargo lift they had installed to allow some of the women crew to move their stuff into the men's old living quarters.

"And the captain has ordered you be the one to rescue them." BC finished. Nix accepted his order and asked where the lift was trapped now. "The lift is trapped just below the platform leading to the living quarters. I'm guessing you'll want to know where we set up the control box is for the makeshift lift?" BC asked Nix, who nodded back.

She told him the control box was on a small service platform in the cargo bay celling and to reach it he would have to climb a ladder in the cargo bay that should lead him up there.

"Very well, I'll make my way there now." Nick said stepping out the cell. But before he walked away BC warned him that he was still a prisoner on this ship and shouldn't expect a warm welcome from any women he may meet.

Taking this into account, Nix decided his best bet was to get there and get back without too much interaction with the women's crew. Luckily he already knew a route to the cargo bay from his experiences while the ship was being refurbished by the men. Wasting no time, the commander raced from the prison block to the engine room. He burst in, shot past the working engineering women and used a ladder based near the back of the room to climb down to the engine walkway which then lead him straight down to the cargo bay floor.

Nix entered bay panting from his running, but he had no time to rest. He looked up to see the two women stranded on the stuck lift. It was nothing more than a flat sheet of metal with two piece of rope holding it up. Thinking about what BC said Nix looked around to see a gray ladder stuck to the wall near the entrance to the cargo bay.

He quickly climbed the ladder and soon found himself on the service platform for the life. High up in the roof, Nix dared not look over the edge of the platform. He carefully made his way over to the control box located on the centre of the platform and began to look at the situation he had.

From what Nix could tell the control box controlled a pair of pulley systems which pulled the lift by motorised pulleys which wound the rope around the pulley to go up and to go down, the lift slowly uncoiled the rope from the pulleys.

However, currently the control box had malfunctioned making the whole system stick fast. Meaning until the box was fixed. Nobody was getting up or down. Nix tried to fix the control panel, but the women way of wiring was very different to men and Nix couldn't make the box work.

He looked down to the women and called down to them asking they were hurt in anyway.

The two looked up and at once the dark green haired women in the lift shouted up. "Why are you out of confinement? Are you trying to escape?"

Nix shook his head explaining that their captain had ordered him to rescue them. "Listen I need you both to stay perfectly still while I'll attempt another rescue tactic." Nix shouted down to them. "Even the littlest movement could result in death for us, so I ask you both to try not to move even if anything happen ok?"

The green haired women again shouted at Nix telling him to not even think about rescuing them if he was going to kill them in the process. But the blonde haired women beside her covered her mouth telling her to just let the man help them. "After all Barnette, it is the least he could do for two pretty things like us," She said with a small smile.

"Whatever," The green haired women replied angrily. She did not like this one bit. How could the captain trust a man to rescue them? Still they both watched as Nix began to slowly walk his way across a pair of parallel iron beam to where the lifts pulleys sat in-between.

Standing on the back beam of the parallel beam Nix reached down and placing one hand on each pulley systems he slowly began to wind up the rope of the lift. However one of the pulleys slipped out of his hand for a few seconds, resulting in the Lift shifting to one side causing Barnette and her blonde friend to fall on top of each other.

"Are trying to kill us?" Barnette shouted up angry. But Nix told her to be quiet as he quickly pulled the lift back to its neutral level. Barnette did not like to be spoken like that, especially by a man. She shouted back at Nix telling him he couldn't tell her what to do. But he paid no notice and soon managed to pull the lift up to the women to the living quarter's platform entrance. The lift was still broken, but at least he had rescued the women.

"Well I'm impressed," Jura said watching Nix slowly make his way back across the beams. But Barnette told her friend off for complimenting a man. Her pride hurt by the fact she had to be rescued by a man. They both stepped of the lift and made their way to the living quarters.

But for Nix, his climb down to the cargo floor meant he found himself in custardy of two women guards again. They cuffed him with mechanical hand cuffs again and then marched him back to the men's cell without a word.

Nix arrival back at the cell surprised an also imprisoned Hibiki, who had been thrown in the cell after his return from his rescue mission. He thought perhaps Nix would have found a way out, but it seemed he was wrong.

Nix took his usual spot near the laser grid door asking Hibiki about his recuse mission.

"It went fine," Hibiki said wondering why Nix was asking. This was the first time Nix seemed civil with him without mocking him. Instead Nix said he was glad to hear Hibiki's mission went well. This made Hibiki very suspicious of him.

However before Hibiki could ask why Nix was being so civil to him, the prisons monitor screens turned on showing a live feed of BC talking from the bridge.

""I like you all to take a look at this image," she said. Her image is replaced by a picture of a planet with gear-like objects sticking out of it.

"This is the enemy's home planet, we don't know its exact location, but we can assume that they have quite a lot of fire power." BC's voice said over the picture. "They are attacking us because they believe our presence to be hostile. Along with this, we've also learned that the enemy has called upon the destruction of our home world Mejere as well as the men's home world of Tarak. Our faceless enemy is bent on complete annihilation of our home planets".

The image then changes to a live video of the women captain talking.

"We are pirates and our loyalties are neither to Mejere or Tarak. However, we cannot allow an unknown force to drive away our potential customers. Therefore I've decided to head back as soon as possible to inform both worlds of this crisis. But in order to successful, we must incorporate the men we have taken prisoner into our crew."

The captain statement surprises the women crew and even the men were taken back by this decision to incorporate them. But the captain continues on to say that even though there were many things they didn't know about the ship, she was certain they'd learn one piece at a time throughout our journey. But she expects full cooperation of the entire crew in this time of need. And with that, the captain ends the live feed.

The monitors around the ship turn off and after a few minutes, Hibiki and Nix are released from their cell by two women guards. The two men exit the cell and watch as the women guards watch them back. It was a tense situation, but without a second thought for Nix Hibiki raced off leaving Nix behind with the guards.

The three continued to look at each other until finally the two women guards left. They did not feel comfortable around Nix and left before anything happened. Nix was glad they left when they did leave because as they disappeared from the prison cell he grasped his right arm again letting out a quiet painful grunt.

The pain had returned to his right arm and he didn't know how long he could hide it. Knowing he couldn't let the women see his pain Nix let go of his arm and quickly began to make his way to the sick bay.

All the way Nix held in his pain, but on his walk began hear some of the women crew member talk about Hibiki's rescue of a woman named Gascogne and how Duelo had helped in getting the ship out the nebula . With such information spreading amongst the women some fast, Nix knew he couldn't let on he was in pain.

Even the sliest sign and he was sure it would spread through the ship making him seem weak and giving them information they could use against him. He couldn't allow that, the only way to survive amongst these women was to make sure only one person knew how serious his injury had become.

"Your pain has returned?" Duelo asked inviting Nix to sit on a sick bay bed with his right hand. Nix took up his offer and sat on the bed telling Duelo it was nothing. However opening the make shift bandage, Duelo saw blood patches covered the whole inside of the bandage. The hole in Nix's arm had stretched, resulting in more blood loss.

"Let me guess," Duelo said looking at the Nix with his uncovered eye. "These are from your lift rescue." Nix nodded with a painful grin. The air had hit the hole causing his muscles to retract to the cold causing Nix more pain. Seeing this, Duelo quickly threw the blooded makeshift bandage away and began to apply proper bandages. He wrapped them around Nix upper arm making sure not to tie the bandages to tight or to loose.

"You must try not to use this arm for a while as he will continue to damage the repairing muscles if you do." Duelo explained to Nix calmly. Nix nodded, taking the doctor advice in. The two then began to talk about what Nix had heard in the hallways of the ship.

"I hear you've spent some time healing the ship too," Nix said as Duelo cut off the leftover bandage with a pair of scissors. Duelo explained he wouldn't have. But the head engineer beliefs change his option of the situation.

Nix found this funny; he never thought a mere woman could change an elite doctor option. He even began to coincided finding out more about this head engineer and the rest of the women on the ship.

"There you should be all right for now," Duelo said finishing off. Nix thanked Duelo before getting to his feet. He moved his right arm up and down a bit, checking what he could do without feeling too much pain.

"So now you have your freedom Nix. What are you going to do now?" Duelo asked, cleaning away his medical equipment. Nix answered he was going to get ready. Duelo thought about asking what he was getting ready for. But from his time so far with Nix. He knew he'd find out soon enough.

With a finally thanks to Duelo, Nix left the sick bay and began to explore the ship. There were many places Nix found including the bridge, the women's quarters, the hanger and finally the Reg centre.

Now the Reg centre caught Nix interest because he had heard two women exit the centre talking about weapons and spare parts for their dreads.

"Hmm... This Reg centre must be where the women store their weaponry" Nix thought to himself. Perhaps this is the place had what he wanted to get ready. Wanting to know more, Nix entered the centre. Only to be greeted by a flash of bright colours before him and a chorus of women all dress in pink maid's outfits with white gloves and blue belts saying a warm toned, "Welcome."

Nix didn't what to say, but in the end thanked the women. He had never seen anything like this on a ship before. The walls were painted a light cream colour with dark pink coloured strips decorating the top of the walls. The room also had a long row of small desks and a single desk on its own right at the back.

Nix wondered if this really could be a place where weapons were stored. However his thoughts were disturbed by someone saying, "So you're the famous Dark Heart huh."

Nix looked to where the voice had come from to see a single women sitting with her boots up on the huge desk at the back of the Reg centre. She had long black hair tied up by small pink hair band shaped into spheres, a black head band around here head. A yellow shirt with the collar sticking up, black shoulder pads on both her shoulders, red baggy trousers held up by thin brown braces and black boots.

"Famous is not a word I would use to describe someone I've never meet." Nix said watching the women put her boots to the floor. The women agreed with this and introduced herself as Gascogne.

Nix had heard this name before. This must be the women Hibiki rescued. But what was she doing here?

His answer came from Gascogne herself, who told Nix that the Reg was her place and the only reason anyone came here was for dread supplies. However she guessed he didn't want them. Nix nodded and instead asked if the Reg centre had parts from their last battle with the men.

"After all your pirates, I'm sure you must have collected a few vanguard parts before the accident." Nix said looking at Gascogne coldly. Gascogne leaned back in her chair with a grin. She suggested she might have some. But what made him think she would just hand them over to him?

She made a fair point, but Nix wasn't going to give up that easy. He looked at her desk and noticed a small pack of playing cards lying in front of her. This gave Nix an idea.

"You're a card player," Nix said Gascogne pointing to the card pack in front of her. Gascogne answered she played for fun looking at him with a grin. From her grin Nix could tell this women played cards for more than fun. Seeing this as his ticket to get to the parts Nix suggested the two of them play for parts. Gascogne smiled at this vow of challenge. She had beaten every woman on the ship, but she'd never played a game of cards with a man before.

Accepting his challenge Gascogne told the Reg women nearest to her to get Nix a chair. The women at once placed one of the Reg pink chair's in front of Gascogne desk saying. "There you go Miss Gascogne."

Nix found this strange that the Reg women called this women Miss. Perhaps it was because she was older them? Or maybe it was because she was the leader? Either way Nix thought this title maybe worth keeping in his head in case he ever needs to address another women like Gascogne.

However with no more time to think, Nix took his place on the chair and the game began.

The game chosen was poker. Gascogne was to be the dealer and Nix was the player. He watched Gascogne shuffle the cards quickly and neatly until she was happy. She then slid him five faced down cards and then took five faced down cards herself.

The cards Nix held where A two of spades, a three of spades, a four of spades, one of diamonds and the queen of diamonds. Nix looked at his cards then at Gascogne relaxing with her cards in her right hand.

"Being the dealer puts this woman in control over the cards, however even if someone controls the cards that doesn't mean they know all the tricks to the game." Nix thought beginning to shuffle his cards. His shuffling was quick and panicked giving Gascogne the impression he was struggling.

However this was all a trick that Nix had planned. This trick was meant to give the other player so much confidence that they would make mistakes. Overconfidence is a card player's greatest enemy. However if this trick had worked on Gascogne was about to be revelled.

It was the final stand down of the game and the tow player were set with their cards.

"So, you feel lucky Dark heart?" Gascogne asked him with a small grin on her face. Nix answered back with a calm nod. Finally they both laid down their cards and the Reg women gasped. Nix had a royal flush while Gascogne had a flush. The two players looked at each other waiting for a reaction. Every women in the Reg centre looked at the two in shock. Was it true? Had Gascogne been beaten in a game of poker?

Finally Gascogne broke into a cheerful laugh. She congratulated Nix on beating her and told him to follow her round back. Nix did and soon found himself before a huge metal door. Gascogne hit the password into the door's code machine stuck on the door and the huge door opened with a loud click. Nix watched as the door opened to a huge warehouse interior behind it.

"Welcome to the warehouse Dark Heart," Gascogne said, stepping into the warehouse. Nix followed behind her looking as they passed the warehouse shelves packed to the brim with all sort of weapons from missiles to lasers to even energy bombs.

"Quite a place huh," Gascogne said to Nix with pride in her voice. "The perfect weapon storage I'm sure," Nix commented, noticing the pride in her voice.

They continued to walk to the back of the warehouse area where another huge metal door awaited them. Gascogne explained that behind the door was another room where they old parts from ships they couldn't sell.

"Fell free to help yourself, but make sure before you take anything to check it out with me ok?" Gascogne said opening the door. Nix agreed, looking inside to see a room full with old wings, cockpits and other parts including some parts from the vanguards. Nix was sure he would be able to find what he wanted. But before he got to work he asked Gascogne if she knew any energy shield parts in the pile.

"No, but how many you want?" Gascogne said, getting her PDA out her pocket. Nix asked if she should really be offering him parts. After all, wasn't she worried he might be building a ship to fight back?

"Listen Dark heart, your part of the crew now. If I treat you different from my girls, how can I expect you to trust me," Gascogne said making a point. Nix could see her point and assured her he wasn't building an attack ship.

Gascogne found Nix admittance quite funny, but strangely happy that this man understood the situation. Taking Nix order of two energy shields, Gascogne told him she would take a look around the warehouse for them and if she found any she would deliver them to the men's modified cargo bay. Since she guessed that's where he'd be for the next few days.

Nix thanked her before the two returned to their tasks. True to her word, Gascogne did deliver the two energy shields to the hanger, where for the next three days Nix began to build his project. Yet his project did not go unnoticed by the women and soon Meia started to survey what Nix was doing.

It was on the second day of Nix build that Meia started taking up hiding spots from the Reg centre to the hanger to watch Nix process. However not all here hiding spots kept her hidden from other problems.

"Meia," a voice called happily from behind her. The Dread leader nearly jumped out of her skin before quickly looking out from his hiding spot near the Reg centre door to see Dita behind her.

"Dita, I'm very busy. Can this wait?" Meia asked Dita, who answered back saying she just wanted to know if Meia had seen Mr Alien. This was the new name Dita had given to Hibiki over the last few days.

"No, perhaps he is in the hanger," Meia suggested trying to watch Nix as he came out he Reg centre door and talk to her team mate at the same time. Dita thanked Meia for the idea and skipped away passing Nix in the hallway with a cheerful, "Hi Mr Dark heart.

Meia signed before returning to her scouting target. Her observation continued on Nix, watching him carry the old energy core from the Reg centre to the hanger. From all her observations, Meia could only conclude Nix was building a ship to fight back against the women.

"I should report this to the captain before he has the chance to finish." Meia thought slowly exiting her hiding spot near the hanger door. But as the dread leader made her way to the bridge to report Nix act, she met Gascogne in the hallway leading to the bridge.

"Well, well if it isn't Meia, what's up?" Gascogne greeted the dread leader. Meia told Gascogne she believed Nix was building a ship to strike back at them. However Gascogne laughed at this.

"Miss Gascogne I fail to see what is funny about this situation." Meia said watching the women laugh. But Gascogne soon explained that if Nix was building an attack ship then his building skill is lacking. She showed Meia the list of parts and item's Nix had taken from the Reg centre.

"Two energy shields, some heavy armour and some old vanguard parts from spare parts bay," Meia said looking though her PDA. This wasn't what Meia wanted to hear, still even if Nix had covered his track well there was one thing she could herself to prove Nix intentions.

"Thanks Miss Gascogne you've been a big help," Meia said running back towards the hanger. Gascogne shook her head watching the dread leader run, "That girl, always so uptight."

By the time Meia raced back to the hanger, Nix was at work again on his project. He had based himself right next to Hibiki's vanguard allowing Meia to slowly creep over and hide behind Hibiki's vanguard so serve as her observation spot.

For the next few hours, Meia watch Nix work like a machine. He only stopped to eat, drink and use the toilet. Of course with this new found knowledge, Meia made a plan to get closer to Nix's project. She waited until Nix left and then sneaked over to inspect the half built project.

At first glance, it looked like Nix had built the top and bottom half's of Hibiki's vanguard. However with closer inspection Meia noticed Nix vanguard copy lacked any signs of weapons Hibiki's vanguard had and its body was a lot bulker.

"Strange, perhaps this vanguard attacks differently." Meia thought, flipping open the copy vanguards cockpit. But to Meia surprise the cockpit looked very much like Hibiki's vanguard. With a single chair and a cockpit full of buttons it matched.

Taking herself out the cockpit, Meia thought this was a strange ship for Nix to build. After all it lacked any weapons so it couldn't attack. It was heavy so it couldn't out run a dread. And finally how would an attacker even know how to build such a ship.

It was all very unclear to Meia. However she soon found her answer from Nix himself. He had come back from his break and noticed Meia staring at his work. "Can I help you?" He asked from behind her.

Surprised by Nix return, Meia quickly faces him and points her ring at him. She warns him not to attempt anything that would force her to use her ring. To which Nix replies by putting his hands behind his head. The two stand there in silence for a moment before Meia begins to ask Nix about his vanguard copy.

"It is not copy dread leader Meia." Nix said stopping her for a second. Meia asks how Nix knows about her position and her name. Nix simple replies that he has done his research. The conversation slowly moves back to the copy vanguards.

Meia began by asking Nix how he was able to build this vanguard copy. Nix explains to her that he designed the original vanguard for the Men's army.

"So you created the vanguard?" Meia said questioning him. Nix nodded saying

"Expect this vanguard, is the vanguards original design." This became interesting to Meia. She asked why the men changed the vanguard. To which Nix answered that the men wanted a ship that could kill, not protect.

"So is this Vanguard as powerful as Hibiki's?" Meia asked becoming more curious about the new ship. Nix answered her, "if it makes you at ease, then I'll say yes".

However this wasn't the answer Meia was after. She told Nix her happiness had nothing to do with the current conversation.

"True," said Nix beginning to lower his hands. "But what is interesting, is the fact you seem more interested in what I'm doing, rather than what your team is doing."

Meia ignored Nix comment and began to ask what this new vanguard could do. Nix asked why she wanted to know. After all she was the women's leader, not his.

"Oh this ship, I'm your squad leader," Meia replied to Nix. "I expect my team to work together and get along. We don't hide secrets from each other."

Nix just grinned at her. He had played the role of leader many times to know this was what was expected of her, but what she just said stuck him.

"Secrets are always shared among crew members. But for leaders, our secrets are well hidden." Nix said stopping before Meia.

"As people who lead we're do not want people under us to question or doubt us. That is why we hide our past, our secrets. If you can tell me you do not have a secret that your crew is unaware of, then you are either the worst liar I've ever met or you're very hurt." Without saying another word, Meia retreated from the hanger, leaving Nix to continue his work.


	4. Nix takes to the field

Chapter 4

**Nix to the field**

Continuing on its journey to Mejere and Tarak, the Nirvana makes a surprising discover, a desert covered planet with no signs of life. Seeing this opportunity to perhaps find supplies and other treasures, BC suggests to the captain that a search team be dispatched to the plant. However the women captain had concerns over who they would send on this mission.

Meanwhile In the hangar of the Nirvana, Hibiki was once again busy working on the Vanguard. It had been a few weeks since he was welcomed back to Meia dread team. But he still felt uneasy on the ship.

Perhaps it was because Dita always was around bugging him? Maybe it was all the fighting he done? Whatever the reason, Hibiki couldn't seem to shake his uneasy feeling.

He went back to work only to have Dita sneak up on him and scare him out of his skin. She had only wanted to say hello, but poor Hibiki fell on his back with a thud. He look to the ceil moaning, "Perhaps I'm not eating right?"

Concerted for his health, Dita walked Hibiki to the infirmary where Duelo and young women nurse were talking about the profiles of the women on the ship.

"Paiway, the charts for the women seem uninformed about medical history," Duelo questioned the young nurse. Paiway answered that she didn't really take notes after all they weren't important. Duelo shook his head in unbelief that this woman was the ship's only medical staff.

Duelo would have got to work on the charts, but with Hibiki feeling worse for wear at his door-step, the doctor put his patient first.

He had Hibiki first ay down on an infirmary bed hooked up to a heart monitor to measure his stress and heart rhythm. After studying the monitor for a few minutes, Duelo then began his examination.

He placed his hands under Hibiki's left leg and slowly applies pressure as he moves further up his leg. It wasn't until the doctor got closer to his inner thigh that Hibiki slapped the doctor's hands away shouting, "What do you think you're doing?"

Duelo simple answers he is examining his patient, but Hibiki still tells the doctor to keep his hands to himself. Duelo accepts his patient wish and instead examines Hibiki condition through observations.

"You look exhausted," Duelo said noticing Hibiki pale skin and tired eyes. Hibiki tells the doctor that it not easy-going out and fighting with the women, Of course he was tired, but somebody's gotta protect them. That this Hibiki stopped realising what he had just said.

"So you're protecting them, now?" Duelo said, very interested in Hibiki change of attitude towards the women. Hibiki tries to answer, but he couldn't the words.

All this pressure made Hibiki's heart rate rise quickly, so Duelo suggested their dissection about women ended. Yet even if they could stop talking about women the two men could not be away from them from long. As before long Paiway appeared beside the heart monitor.

She began to tap it asking if this was some kind of video game. Duelo told her it was a heart monitor something he'd sure she would have seen during her medical training. However Paiway hadn't, she instead told them both that all injures could be cured by going to the Jacuzzi.

This name didn't ring with the men, Duelo had never heard for such a thing during his medical training. Paiway sighed and told them she would show them. The Jacuzzi was based next door to the infirmary with a room for changing and the other where the Jacuzzi was.

Paiway took the two men to the changing room first and showed them the Jacuzzi through a window in the room. The Jacuzzi turned out to be a large round bath willed with steaming water, where the women went to rest and recover, yet on this visit the three visitors saw another person at the Jacuzzi they never thought they'd see.

The person turned out to be Nix, he was leaning over unoccupied water filled Jacuzzi with his arm dipped into the warm, steamy water. Waiting a few seconds, Nix then pulled his arm out of the water. He looked at it as he moved, flinching as the pain returned to him.

He grumbled something as he rolled his sleeve back down to cover his injury and then left without a word. Having seen this from the window, Duelo suggested to Paiway that perhaps her Jacuzzi wasn't as wonderful as she made it sound.

Shifting back to the bridge, the captain and BC had finally managed to receive more information about the desert planet. The information told them that the planet suffered from large sandstorm regularly meaning the dreads would be of no use to a landing crew.

But BC still insisted that the captain order a search of the planet, even with this set back, she was sure they could use the men's vanguard ship design to access the planet. The captain thought about this, she didn't want to risk her girls lives, if there was nothing down there, but without ship satellite begin about to scout the planet due to the storms, they could be overlooking a planet ripe for plundering.

"Very well then," The captain said deciding. She gave the go ahead for the scouting mission and within minutes BC made the announcement to the crew of Nirvana of about the mission.

The pilots BC selected for the mission were Meia, Dita, Barnette, Jura, Hibiki and Nix. Who would use made vanguard to scout the planet and return with information or goods. However the captain suggested Nix stay behind.

BC agreed to this and announces this new order to the ship's crew. Nix heard this from his prison cell, where he had returned after his Jacuzzi experience.

"Interesting," He thought getting up from his bed. This order couldn't' have come at a better time for Nix, he had a project he wanted to start on his van defender. He quickly made his way to the Reg centre and began his project.

In just a day, the women engineers managed to make four copies vanguards using plan they got form the men's old computers. With them ready it was now time for the women to see their vanguards.

The women weren't so keen on the bulky robot fighter; they preferred their dreads. But for this mission to work, they all had to be able to pilot a vanguard. However it was easier said than done.

After inspecting their new ship's, the four selected women were sent to the training simulation to practise what it would be like to pilot a vanguard. Nix, Hibiki and Duelo watched the women from the viewing deck of the training room.

It was a nightmare with the women crashing into each other and constantly losing control. This simulation training wasn't helping the women in mind or body.

"Their stress levels really are rising fast," Duelo worryingly said reading the meters on the viewing room desk. Nix was not surprised by this, the women had never piloted a ship which you had to pilot like your own body.

"Their treating it like a ship with controls, not like another body" Nix said, looking at the women still rocking around in their vanguard simulations. Duelo smiled at Nix's explanation to Vandread control. He had never heard a vanguard pilot say their vanguard was another body.

"You may be right Dark heart, but for their sake I hope they learn fast," Duelo said, watching the women hearts rates rocket as they crashed into each other again.

Finally enough was enough and Jura threw her simulation's pod door open and yelled in frustration. "I've had enough! Why can't this thing move with a little more elegance? I'm out of here."

She walked out, leaving the men to watch the three remaining women train.

Hibiki was feeling as smug as ever as the men continued to watch the remaining women. "I told you there's no way in the world a women could pilot a Van-type," Hibiki said with his hands behind his head.

But Nix did point that to the smug teenager that even he had trouble when he first got into vanguard for the first time.

"That was a long time ago" Hibiki grumbled, his ego deflated by this point being pointed out. It was then Duelo noticed Meia monitor screen.

"She's having trouble breathing; her claustrophobia is kicking in, Duelo said opening contact with her.

Inside Meia's pod the screen went black and the message died in combat appeared in red writing. "Dam it," Meia cursed, slamming her fist against the side of the pod. Her breath was unevenly paced and she was suffering badly from her fear.

It didn't help her mood when Duelo asked if there were medical overrides on Mejere. With Meia not replying, Duelo explained to that on Tarak, doctors are given the authority to ground pilots when they are in situations similar to hers.

"Do you want that to happen to you?" Duelo asked the panting women. Meia answered she didn't, giving Duelo the excuse he needed to suggest Meia widened her vanguard field of vision as to not kick-start her claustrophobia.

However Meia didn't take the suggestion well.

"Keep your advice to yourself." She angrily replied. "I don't accept help from anybody, least of all you. I'll be just fine thank you very much!" With that she turned off the commutations to the pod.

Back in the viewing room, Nix had heard the whole agreement between the two and decided he should have a word with Meia. Duelo warned him that Meia may be very agitated and scared from her attack and he shouldn't expect a civil conversation.

Nix nodded, he expects as much, but still went down to see Meia. He stood by the side of the pod waiting until Meia lifted the lid and rose out.

She noticed him straight away and looked at him with her cold look. "Having Trouble leader," Nix said, offering her his good hand. "No" Meia said strongly, almost falling out the pod. Nix caught her by the back of her space suit with his good hand and pulled her to her feet again.

Meia grumbled a thank you to Nix as he let her go, but Nix shook his head at her. He asked her why she pushed herself to such a limit during training. He could understand wanting to be the best, but trying to force past an illness wasn't good practice.

"I don't need you questioning my practise, I'm fine." Meia answered getting carefully out the pod. Nix accepted her answer, only commenting that she was no good to anyone if she wreaked herself. Meia ignored his comment and left without another word.

Feeling his work was done Nix returned to the viewing area where Duelo and Hibiki were watching the remaining women continue their training. Nix stood beside them watching the remaining women train.

Time passed and soon the captain found she had received another complaint from Hibiki. This time he was telling her to tell her people to stop messing with Van-Types. He was going to add more before he hung up saying, "Oh she's here."

BC looks at the sudden cut off with confusion written all over her face. But the captain found this rather funny. "Ha, ha, it sure has gotten livelier ever since we captured those four men," she said with a smile.

What the captain said was true, since the arrival of the men things had gotten a lot livelier. Dita and Hibiki were now in the ship's garden having a one sided picnic with Paiway spying. Meia was back in the planning room, thinking up new strategies to deal with the enemy they faced. Jura and Barnette were in the kitchen of the ship planning something, Duelo was back in the infirmary working on medical charts, Bart was busy controlling the ship and Nix was back in the hanger.

He was working on his van defender trying to finish his project on the ship. Yet peace could not last forever on the Nirvana and soon with all scans and test complete the order to investigate the desert planet was put in motion.

Nix was still in the hangar when the four out of five vanguards left. The four that launched were Hibiki Dita, Jura and finally Barnette. This caught Nix attention thinking, "So I wonder were miss perfect is?"

It wasn't until a few minutes later when Meia rushed through the hangar door. She noticed the other gone and shouted "I'm too late". Following behind her Pyoro tried to calm her down.

"Don't push yourself, won't they be all right without you, Meia?" he asked kindly. But Meia told him that it shouldn't have happened. She is responsible for all of them as their leader." But the white robot informed her regretfully, that the launch shuttle was made for one way only. There aren't any others.

"What are you talking about?" she growled.

"He means once it goes, you gotta make your own way back and since you missed the shuttle down leader" said Nix appearing from behind his van-defender. Meia said she thought Nix would have gone with the crew. But Nix told her he couldn't due to special orders from BC

"You, special orders" Meia said shocked. What was a man like Nix doing with special orders?

Nix explained the captain and BC had ordered him to remain as re-enforcements for the ship. Meia just huffed at this as she made her way to her vanguard.

"Wait Meia please!" Called Pyoro worried for her safety. But Meia didn't listen; she got into her vanguard and blasted out the hanger. They both watched her go and Nix patted Pyoro on his head. "Don't worry Pyoro; she knows what she's doing," Nix said, returning to his van-defender.

On the planet, the reconnaissance team observed the endless sea of sand. Jura complained about the planet being boring, But she was not the only one bored.

"Man, what waste of time," Hibiki grumbled, controlling his vanguard through the waving sand. However, the team soon had little time for boredom. As from the sands, creatures made of sand grabbed on to their vanguard's legs, trying to pull them down.

However Meia also found herself in trouble. She had crashed landed on the planet, making her ship shudder from impact. This caused her monitors to switch off making her feel in a very small space. Her claustrophobia kicked in, causing her vision to go fuzzy and her response time to slow. She tried to shake it off, but she couldn't.

Suddenly from her radio she heard, "Meia, can you hear me? Turn on your monitors."

It was Duelo, he had heard about what happened in the hangar and now was trying to contact her. "He should mind his own business!" Meia thought followed the doc's instructions and activating the vanguard monitors.

She only had a few seconds to look out the monitors before she was grabbed by a sand monster. Meia only had time to gasp before the monster covered her vanguard and forced it to the ground.

"What should I do? I'm scared!" Meia asked herself in fear with her hands clutched on her face. It looked like the end for Meia, but Duelo, who had heard her message decided to take action.

Nix was still working on his van-defender when Duelo rushed in. "Nix!" he called panicked. "In the cockpit doctor," Nix cheerfully answered, fiddling with the inside of his cockpit.

Duelo rushed over and explained that he had lost contact with Meia after she just had a claustrophobia attack. But Nix wasn't interested; he told Duelo Meia could look after herself. But the proud doctor wouldn't accept that answer.

"Very well, but a wreaked leader is no good to anyone," Duelo said, standing for a moment before Nix gave a deep sigh. He hated having his own words used against him.

He threw the doctor his tool box from inside the cockpit of the van defender and readied himself in the cockpit. He couldn't believe he was going to help, but he was. Activating the van defender's thrusters Nix blasted out the hanging leaving Duelo behind.

Back on the desert planet, Hibiki had managed to activate the planets self-destruct system while fighting with the sand monsters. To add more trouble Meia Vanguard arrived and began to attacking Hibiki's vanguard.

After a brief struggle, Hibiki knocked the sand cover vanguard down and started to try and scrap the sand off. He wanted to rescue Meia, but with the timer ticking it all looked very grim. The other vanguard were struggling too with the sand creatures there was just to many to keep fighting and without reinforcements they would been unable to escape the planet.

Luckily help arrived in the form of the van defender. It used it shield to bash through the sand creatures and gather the five vanguards inside. Hibiki was still trying to free Meia's vanguard, but he was having no luck.

"Forget the sand digging, look around, see what you can find to fight back at the sand," Nix ordered to Hibiki from his van defender. Hibiki looked around them to see one huge ice tank near them. He fired an energy beam from his vanguard at the tank and the planet suddenly became very cold.

The change in temperature caused the sand creatures to crumbles into pile of sand, Lucky only the sand fell off Meia's Vanguard allowing her to freely move again. But bad news soon followed this success.

The timer on the self-destruction was almost up and they were still on the planet. Seeing this as they last chance, the six pilots blasted off at full speed trying to get off the planet before the planet exploded.

From the nirvana bridge BC, the captain and the workers on the bridge could only watch as the timer hit zero. The planet exploded into a fierily ball and there was no signs of the vanguards. The crew fell silent for their fallen comrades; however it was as BC looked at the planet that she noticed something.

It was the vanguards; they all were in a huge green ball-shaped shield. In his vanguard Hibiki opened his eyes to see he was still alive. He couldn't believe it; neither could the women vanguard pilots. But looking up they all saw the van-defender above them, carrying the shield they were in like a ball.

"Hooray Mr Dark heart saved us," Dita cheered over the radio. Hibiki and Barnette just grumbled about being rescued, while Jura was just happy to be alive. But for Meia this was a big blow to her, she had let her crew down knowing Nix would never let her forgets this.

The tired pilots returned to the hangar and soon after landing; Dita, Jura and Barnette were called away by BC by announcement, leaving Nix, Hibiki and Meia in the hanger.

Nix jumped down from his van defender cockpit and took a deep breath. It had been quite the rescue, but still Nix noticed Meia sadly leaning against a hangar support beam near Hibiki's vanguard, where Hibiki was sneezing like mad.

Watching them, he saw Meia look at Hibiki wiping his nose on his right hand and complain about how he had caught a cold from the planet.

"To be rescued by a man and it being him, makes this worse," Meia thought watching Hibiki sneezing and complain like a child.

It was a scene that should have stayed quiet, but like always, Nix had something to say.

"Well since your both so quiet, I think it the best time to tell you two, I going to blame you both for this screw up of a mission." This caused both Meia and Hibiki to argue back. Hibiki told Nix he saved everybody, he's the whole reason they were able to leave the planet.

But Nix shook his head at the teen saying, "you were foolish."

"You let your emotions take over .While you were scraping at the sand to free Meia, you could have looked around seen that ice tower. You would have been able to rescued her and allow the team more time to escape and still have had time to come home and play hero."

Meia grunted at this telling off. But she was next on Nix lecture list. He told her she was even worse than Hibiki, going down there without good reason.

"I went down to assist my team that's all" said Meia standing her ground. But Nix laughed at her statement, telling her, the last thing he saw was Meia going off on your own free will."

"You failed to take the advice of the doctor, you went off and crashed your ship, causing yourself further suffering and to finish off this list of mistakes," Nix said angrily. "You also forced me to leave my post to rescue you and your sorry crew."

"Who are you to scold me?" Meia snapped back, defending herself.

Nix answer to this was to tell her that he was the mug who watched it all happen and was the very same mug that brought them all home safe and sound. The room went quiet once again; the three pilots said nothing until Nix took a deep breath. He had let his anger get the better of him and before he left, he told the two they had done well as a team, but as for themselves, they needed to work harder.

After Nix departure Hibiki called him a jerk before going back to sneezing madly again. But for Meia this was shameful. To be told off by a man, she swears then and there that she would show Nix. She would show him that she didn't him or his advice.


	5. The strong stumble too

Chapter 5

The strong stumble too

A week has passed on the Nirvana since the events on the desert planet. Hibiki's cold has settled down and life had returned to normal for the crew of the Nirvana. However it was today that the crew would face a battle that would not only cause great worry for the dread fighters, but also for everyone on nirvana.

"Enemy fleets are approaching, numbers range from twelve to twenty" a bridge bunny reported to the captain.

The old women captain nodded ordering the dread teams to move out. Within minutes the dread teams along with Nix and Hibiki vanguards made contact with the enemy fleet.

At first this battle looked easy; however the battle grew harder for the nirvana dread teams, thanks to the increasing number of enemies.

"There's too many, we'll have to pull back" Barnette said over her dread's radio. But one pilot disagreed with her. Meia had been fighting these enemies now for over an hour, she wasn't going to pull back now.

She dashed ahead of the attack crew; bringing down a number of enemy ships.

"You should be more careful dread leader" Nix suggested to her over the radio. But Meia ignored Nix advice and continued her reckless attack.

However it was then it happened. A squad of enemy ships concentrated their fire onto Meia's dread. She tried her best to avoid them, but it was no good. One shot clipped her dread's left wing sending her dread spinning right into the rally of shots.

"Meia" Barnette called out seeing it happen before he eyes. She couldn't believe Meia had been hit. She raced down in her dread only to be met by Nix vanguard. He had seen the attack too and now was getting ready to pull Meia's back to the hanger

"Barnette radio the nirvana, tell them I'm returning with a casualty" Nix ordered to her.

The pilot did as she was told and radio in the casualty. "This is Barnette. Meia is down, repeat Meia is down."

This call sent the crew on the nirvana crew into a state of panic. Duelo and Paiway were sent down to the hanger to take Meia into the Infirmary when Nix brought her back, while the bridge bunnies began to try and contact Jura.

She was to next in command of dread should anything happen to Meia. However she wasn't answering.

Back in the hanger the van defender arrived bringing the damaged Dread with it. In a matter of second after landing, the medical team and Nix moved Meia out for her wreaked dread and onto a medical cart. She was bare coconscious as they all rushed down the hallways to the infirmary. Yet even though she could hear her friend's words of encouragement, Meia knew this was the end of her.

"Perhaps now I can rest" she thought slipping into an unconsciousness state. But even if she felt at rest, one person on the crew was now filled with guilt.

That person stood in the hall way near the infirmity, looking out at the current space battle.

"Could I have stopped this?" Nix thought at the window. "I was right there and yet I didn't do anything."

The guilt was eating at him and his will. And soon, it changed the once calm and confident Nix into a questioning and guilt ridden man.

He stood there a little long until he felt a hand on his left shoulder. He looked to see the hand belong to Gascogne. She had come to tell him it wasn't his fault Meia was hurt. But Nix didn't believe that and his answer made that clear.

"It may not have been Gascogne, but it hurts my pride as a leader."

Gascogne smiled, she had heard that somewhere before. "You know Dark Heart," she said taking her hand off his shoulder. "You're a lot like her in many ways"

Nix however couldn't even think of thing that made him and Meia similar. Gascogne knew what he was thinking and replied," They never can."

Finally the infirmary seemed to calm down and Nix took this chance to visit Meia. As the infirmary doors opened, Duelo noticed Nix changes. His once cold glare was weaker and his straight posture started to slip.

"How is she?" Nix asked looking down at Meia with tubes in her mouth. "She's not good" Duelo replied calmly. Taking this in Nix asked the doctor if he could take a seat beside her bed.

"Be my guest" Duelo said allowing Nix to sit on a chair beside her. After take his seat Nix held his right arm. The pain was back, but for what reason Nix was unsure.

Paiway asked Duelo quietly if Nix was all right. Duelo looked over at Nix and nodded.

"He's fine, just leave him be" Duelo said seeing the pain Nix felt in his eyes.

However the horror was not over in space battle. The morale among the dread teams still fighting began falling without their leader to guide them. The dread formations were scattered and confused as the enemy attacked them.

"It seems we've taken Meia's leadership for granted, we've neglected to train a sub-leader in the event she was seriously injured." BC said in frustration to the captain. But the captain disagreed.

"No we trained her, but now she sits in a corner somewhere" said the captain looking at her monitor of the battle field. The person the captain and BC were talking about was poor Jura.

She had heard about what happened to Meia and knew she was next in the mine of command. But she didn't believe she had the confidence to command the dread team. Instead she hid in dark hallway telling herself she wasn't Meia and she could never do what she could.

But what Jura didn't know was the captain didn't expect her to do it alone. She had already made a backup plan should this ever occur and that was Nix.

In the infirmary Nix was still sitting beside Meia's bed when BC walked in.

"I thought I'd find you here" she said looking at him. He looked at her as a single tear ran down his right cheek.

"What a site" she said looking at him.

"What's wrong commander, not allow emotions" Nix said weakly looking at her as the tear dropped off his face.

"You're needed on the battlefield, Jura's out there, but she'll need support" BC said crossing her arms. But Nix told her he would come when he was ready.

BC knew this Nix being weak and the only way to rally a man like him was to mock him.

"So this how the mighty fall" she said sarcastically. "I at least expected you to something first before you cry Dark Heart"

This made Nix laughed weakly. He had figured out what she was doing. But this didn't stop it effect.

"I've not fallen, I've stumbled" Nix said looking up at her with his ice cold glare. This was the sign Nix was recovering and knowing this, BC told him she'd tell Jura help would be on the way.

After BC left, Nix stood tall once again. He asked Duelo to keep him informed of any changes to Meia status. Who said he would. But before Nix left, Duelo threw something to him.

Nix caught it in his left hand and looked to see it was Meia's face piece she always wore.

"I think this will be most helpful you" he said with a calm smile. Nix thanked the doctor and ran to the hanger. Once there, he jumped into the van-defender and readied it systems.

"Computer open communication channels to all dreads" he order gripped onto Meia's face piece in his left hand. This was his time to stand up and be counted. He blasted out the hanger and raced towards his allies.

But in the heat of the battle Jura was starting to lose faith again.

"Come on come on" she said trying encouraging herself. But soon another voice spoke over the radio interrupting her.

"Attention all dreads," BC said over the radio. "Your new commander is Dark Heart; I repeat, your new command is Dark Heart and what he says goes"

The dread pilots were shocked at this. They had never had a male commander, what would he make them do? How could he possible know their tactics? But their questions were soon answered when Dark Heart spoke to them through the radio.

"Today we fight for a comrade. Both a friend and leader to us all let us fight in her name and show her no matter where she is her team will go on.

Barnette could only listen as the other dreads pilots cheered and clapped this heroic speech. Even Jura shed a tear.

But it was not over for commander Nix. He ordered Jura to take Hibiki, Dita and Barnette to the front lines, while the rest of the dreads would fall back a bit. Allowing them all more room to protect the ship from an attack.

Without an argument the dread pilots followed their stand in commander and if by magic, the dread team instantly became more effective and organised. They managed to break through to the enemy main ship and now Nix final order to the four pilots in the front line was to finish it.

As the final push began for the pilots, a single tear ran down Meia's left check. Surprised Paiway gasped.

"This is the first time I've seen Meia cry" she said to Duelo. But looking on, Duelo could only imagine what she must be experiencing in her unconscious state.

Out in the battle Vandread Dita managed to destroyed the enemy flag ship with s final blow from Vandread Dita swords. Cheers and shouts of joy came over the radio, but there was little time for Nix to celebrate this victory as soon Duelo contacted him.

"Dark Heart we're trying a method to revive Meia, you'll want to come see this," Duelo told him over the radio. Nix nodded and flew back to the nirvana at double speed. Landing bad, Nix got out his van defender and ran from the hanger to the infirmary as fast as he could. He dashed in to see Meia hooked up to a computer by many pulse plugs.

He was surprised to see Parfet there, but soon it all became clear why she was there.

"We only have one chance, if we do this right the energy causing her state located in her head will be destroyed and she will return to normal" Duelo explain to the gathered members.

"However if it goes wrong, she will be lost forever". They all understood and with a round of nods of agreement from the doctor and Nix, Parfet activated the computer.

It started with a few loud bleeps sound then suddenly Electric waves began covering Meia's body. Her body twitched as the pulses caused the muscles to retract.

"Stay tough leader" Nix prayed to himself, watching her body move in pain again. But in her mind Meia was already on a roller coaster ride.

She had been speaking with her dead mother whist unconsciousness and now the electric pulses flowing through her were slowly awaking her brain.

"You should go back. There are people waiting for you "Meia's mother said to her. But Meia didn't want to go back. She wanted to stay with her mother, but her mother vanished saying, "Remember there are people relying on you."

At this Meia awoke gasping for air. Duelo gave her an oxygen mask and told her to relax. Watching her lay back Nix called Duelo to his side.

"Here she'll want this back" Nix said giving him Meia's eye piece back to him. Meia looked up weakly to see Nix leaving. Then she smiled softly as she looked over to Parfet and Paiway who were crying uncontrollably at her bedside.

"You came back" Parfet said through twin streams of tears.

"We thought we lost you" Paiway added now with steams of tears running down her face.

"Stop it you two" Meia said softly placing her hand on her head, but then she gasped. Her eye piece was missing. But Duelo gave it back to her saying "It seems special to you".

"More like a burden" she answered with smile as she clenched it tight. However it felt different to her. She asked Duelo if anyone had touched her eye piece. He shook his head telling her perhaps she was just imaging it.

But Meia was sure; it felt to her like this eye piece not only shared her mother kindness, but also the warmness of someone else's heart. But she couldn't tell who.

Still as the hours passed Meia was soon back to herself. And as for the Nirvana crew they returned to their evening work. Duelo checked the medical systems while Paiway slept on the bed right behind him. In the cafeteria Hibiki, Dita, Jura and Barnette were sleeping soundly after a filling meal. And as for Nix, he sat on the cafeteria window ledge with his head against the glass thinking about the day.

It been a hard day for them all and now watching them all rest was Meia. She peeked through the open cafeteria door looking at her wore out crew and smiled. However she was not alone for long.

"They all did their best today" a voice said from behind her. Meia turned around to see it was the captain standing behind her.

The captain continued to tell Meia that she was surprise how much confusion the crew were in when she was absent. But also how happy she was to see Nix step up to challenge.

Meia was happy he stepped up to the challenge to. She'd never thought he'd be able to control her team, but from the dread pilots reports it was clear he did something right.

"Plus, for all the time you were out, someone was watching over you" the captain moving her look over to Nix.

"Captain I'…" Meia was unsure of what to say to her. Her heart and mind were telling her two different things at this time. Looking back to puzzled Meia the captain smiled.

"Meia isn't time you find some forgiveness. For you I mean" The captain gently to her.

Meia was unsure about forgiving her past self, but she did know one thing. Today her crew had done well without her, an act which would make any leader proud. Proud that her team could do what was needed too, even under the command of a man.

The evening rolls on and soon in his deep slumber, Nix awakens to find he is lying down in a large grass covered field. It was beautiful sight, with small white flowers sporting from the ground and bright white doves flying above him.

"How strange" Nix thought sitting up." I've never been to such a place and yet I feel strangely at peace here."

He grazed out over the rolling fields watching the doves gracefully glide on the soft breeze and the white flowers of the field sway from side to side like beautiful slow dancers.

It really was a calming place, but Nix couldn't understand why he was here? Was this a place where his mind put him to relax or was it a dream his mind had created for him to enjoy?

Nix didn't know, however he did not have to wait long for an answer. From out of nowhere a woman in a long shining white dress appeared beside him. Nix jumped back at little, surprised by her suddenly appearance. But the women merely smiled at him before greeting him with a soft toned "Hello."

Nix greeted her back with his usual toned "good morning" before asking who she was. But the women didn't reply. Instead she asked if she could hold Nix's left hand.

"Should I ask why you wish to hold my hand?" Nix questioned the women, who simply shook her head. Now Nix didn't know why but he places his left hand in the woman's hands and slowly the women sandwiched his hand between hers.

They both sat they for a while not making a sound. Only the quiet "Choo" of the doves was heard as the two sat there.

Finally the women realised Nix hand and with a small friendly smile on her face she said to him. "You have touched the very soul of my daughter. Will you tell me your name?"

Nix told the women his name and at once her smile grew wider.

"Dark heart yes, you were the one I felt. Do you remember how it felt?" the women asked him. Nix really couldn't explain because he had no idea who's soul they were talking about.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't touched anyone soul recently" Nix said to the women. But the women shook her head at him. She told him today he had touched a piece of soul.

"This soul belongs to my daughter" The women said holding Nix left hand again. "Yes, this hand touched the piece of soul; does that mean anything to you?"

Nix froze as it hit him. In that hand today he had only held one thing.

"Meia's face piece" Nix said with small smiling cracking onto his face. That was the soul Nix had touched today, a piece of Meia's soul.

The women finally stood taking Nix up with her as she still had his hand in her hands.

"Yes, it has been a long time since something so warm has touched that part of her soul. You must be very special to allow her to share it with her." The women said.

Nix however told the women she didn't share it with him. He was given it by a doctor after he daughter had fallen ill.

"I'm sorry" Nix apologised. However the woman wasn't angry, she was happy. Happy that her daughter cold soul had chosen to go where it was warm.

"She may have no given it to you, but her soul did." The women said letting Nix hand go. But Nix was unsure about his whole event. This could all be a dream or a vision his brain is making. This couldn't be real.

"Tell me," Nix asked to the women in front of him. "Tell me, if you are as the women say Meia's Fama. Why it is you come to me in this dream?"

Meia Fama could only explain it to Nix in one way, she was dead. She died many years ago while Meia was still young. A system-failure in their living unit forced a mass evacuation leaving behind all the parents, who later died in an explosion that wiped out the living unit.

It was a sad tale, but Nix couldn't believe he was talking to a dead women. He didn't believe in spirits, but before him stood one.

"I'm sorry about your death; I know now how you can talk to me in my dreams. But, I have one more question." Nix asked Meia's Fama.

He wanted to know why she had come to him. What purpose was there for her to visit a man her daughter hated so much? Was it to thank him for saving her? Because he did that out of his own will. Was it to haunt him? And if so, she was doing very well. Or was it to see who touched the soul of her daughter?

"I came to you, to talk" Meia Fama answered. Nix froze, all this was for a chat?

"Do spirits often visit people just to talk?" Nix asked feeling rather unimpressed by the whole situation.

"No, it is rare for spirit to even chat." Meia Fama said sitting down again. "However, I felt you deserved to know why my daughter is so cold towards everyone"

Nix was not sure he wanted to know, yet for some reason he agreed to chat with her. Taking a seat in front of Meia's Fama, he listened as she began to tell him the secrets of Meia's past life.


	6. A change is as good as a rest

**Chapter 6 A change is as good,as a rest.**

The days quickly passed on the nirvana. On one of these days Dita was in her room sowing a pillow together with Paiway watching her. Poking herself with the needle Dita quickly retracted her hand and said painfully "Ow, that hurt". Paiway tilted her head and asked with a smug smile.

"Hey Dita are you giving that to a guy?" The red-haired dread pilot placed her hand on her face and blushed. "Ur well" Dita said shyly. "Cause I was thinking you could give it to me?" Paiway said leaning against the table. Dita grabbed the pillow from the table and turns away. "No way, I'm giving this to Mr. Alien" she cried. In her puppet voice Paiway sighed and said."Barf out" through her frog puppet.

Meanwhile on the bridge BC and the captain were watching as Belvedere and Amarone chatted and Ezra slept not too far away. BC sighed. "When we're not under attack things certainly get dull around here." she said.

Looking up at her second in command Magno smiled. "I didn't know you were one for that military bally hoo" she said. BC replied with "I'm only thinking of the crew's morale". The old pirate smiled at her sub commander. "You need to relax BC" she said relaxing in her chair. BC sighed "yes captain." as she watched the captain relax.

Meanwhile in the hanger Nix and Hibiki were working on there ships, when suddenly Hibiki disappeared into the roof of his cockpit. Nix looked around and noticed Dita running in holding a pillow in her arms. "Oh Mr dark-heart have you seen Mr alien?" She asked. Nix looked at Hibiki's vanguard. He guessed his answer should benefit his other crew member.

"Try his room miss Dita" said Nix looking at the pillow . "Oh yeah thanks Mr black heart" she said dashing off happily. Nix smiled as Hibiki dropped from the roof of his cockpit.

"Why does she keep chasing me?" he said sighing. Nix looked at him "perhaps your a very interesting person" he said now tidying up his tool box. "You think?" said Hibiki shocked at Nix's answer."Or maybe your just so cute Mr alien, she can't keep away from you"joked Nix. "That's not funny" barked Hibiki as Nix laughed closing his tool box.

Meanwhile in Hibiki's prison cell Dita had began to clean it. "Dusty, dusty" she said cheerfully when suddenly Nix appeared at the door. "Oh, hi Mr dark heart" she smiled dressed in her white cleaning outfit. "Miss Dita what are you doing?" he asked carrying his tool box."Cleaning Mr aliens room" she said happily holding a duster in her two small pale hands.

Nix looked at Hibiki's room, it seemed clean but it also seemed to be more filled with funny alien toys. "Very well, keep up the good work miss Dita." Nix said walking away. "I will Mr dark heart" she said smiling as she got back to cleaning.

As Nix walked on,he noticed Hibiki walking towards his cell. "Hitting the hay soldier?" he asked. "What's it too you?" Asked Hibiki in his arrogant tone. "Nothing really, enjoy" Nix smiled making his way. "He really is a strange guy" said Hibiki walking towards his room.

As hibiki arrived at his room he screamed as he saw the state of his re-designed room. "What's going on?" he muttered before seeing Dita asleep on his bed. "Wake up!" he yelled at her. Rubbing her eyes Dita smiled at him as she got up.

"Welcome home" she said happily hopping out of his bed. Hibiki growled "This isn't my home and just what the hell are you doing in my bed?"he barked again. After showing him the pillow she made, Hibiki yelled at her again. "Get out" he yelled as he kicked her out, along with the alien stuff she placed in his room.

Meanwhile in the darkened meeting room Meia was working on new formations for the dread teams adapting them to include the Vanguard and the van defender, When she heard the door opening. She looked around and there stood Nix.

"So this what your up to?" he said walking over to her. "We have to be prepared for the harvesters" she said continuing to her work. Nix looked at the plan's on the screen. "Hmm seems a good formation" he said. "Thank you" said Meia not playing any attention as Nix looked at the screen closely.

"Something wrong?" she said in looking up at him. "No, I was just wondering why my van-defender is so close the shields of the main ship?" He ask. "The captain said she wanted you to be back up, should something happen to me or Hibiki" said Meia.

Nix nodded. "I see, but I think I should move away from the shield"he said moving his icon. "For if the shields should collide with each other it could cause friction, resulting in the ship and van-defender exploding" said Nix moving his icon a few meter's away from the main ship. "Sounds more like you want to be in the action" said Meia in her cold tone.

Nix just huffed. "Keep thinking that way leader ,you think your way and I'll think mine" he smiled. They both looked at each other then looked away.

For the past weeks Nix and Meia were always at each other necks, shouting and arguing always trying to be better then each other. But this only seem to draw them closer to each other. Finally building up enough courage Nix spoke. "Miss Meia I have to tell you something" he said. She looked at him. "It's about" suddenly he was interrupted as Dita walked in with a sad look on her face.

Noticing her crew mate,Meia asked what was bothering her."It's Mr Alien, I cleaned his room but he just threw me out"she said sadly sitting down fiddling with her pale hands. Meia looked at Nix who looked away. "Relationships are not in my line of duty" he said.

Meia shook her head and returned her attention to Dita. "Dita. I'm no good with words, and I don't want to encourage your curiosity, but I don't think its right for you to try and force your way into someone's heart". She said. Dita nodded, "well OK" she said sadly leaving.

"I don't know if it helped or not"said Meia to herself. "If you felt it was right, then I'm sure it was leader" said Nix making his way towards the meeting room door. Meia was shocked but then "Nix wait, what was it you were going to tell me"she asked. He looked back over his shoulder but he couldn't bring himself to say what he was going to say. He sighed. "Nothing keep up the good work, I'll see you in the meeting later" he said leaving.

Dita however didn't feel any better if anything she was even more depressed. She entered the Nirvana's garden and started to throws rocks into the stream. She screamed, "Why? Why? All I want is Mr. Alien being happy!" but no one answered. Just then Paiway snapped a picture of her with a weird looking camera. "Hey Dita, I took a picture with this new aura camera that Parfet built" she said but dita didn't reply. "Dita, are you feeling depressed?"she asked in her childish voice.

Dita answered with a weak voice. "Isn't that obvious?" As Dita began telling Paiway about a pet bluebird she used to have. "I looked after it really well but then it just died" she said sadly. "Maybe the bird died because it got tired of you?" said Paiway joking. "Are you saying that I'm doing the same thing to Mr alien" said Dita now worried.

"That I'm making Mr. Alien tired to?" She cried grabbing Paiway by her shoulders. Holding up her frog puppet Paiway spoke in a gruff voice " Well I did hear Hibiki say he gets real tired around Dita". Dita frowned as she looked at the ground feeling crushed by what she just heard.

However she was not alone in her sadness for another was in the garden shadows. "Hmm what was that dream about? and why me?" thought Nix remembering the dream. "So that's it" said the women sitting down beside him. "I see thank you Mam" said Nix standing. "It was my pleasure after all, soon I will just be a memory but you,you will shine and bring happiness" the women said standing up beside him.

"But tell Mam, are you?" he asked only the women interrupted him with a nodded and a smile. "Yes I saw everything and now you have to go" she smiled. Suddenly a white light seem to consume Nix. "Tell her, I hear her every word and I always love her"smiled the women. At this the dream ended.

Nix sighed as he came back from his thoughts. "What a dream" he said as looked around to see Dita running off leaving Paiway with her frog puppet. "Dita I was joking" Paiway shouted watching Dita run out the graden, but she did not stop she ran out leaving the two behind. Paiway sighed as Nix appeared behind her. "It was a nice try kid" said Nix."Thanks mister" said Paiway as Nix patted her on the head.

It wasn't until later in the confidence room, when it all kicked off again. Meia was waiting for the pilots to arrive. "Your crew seem off balance" said Nix sitting on a front bench "and you would know?" said Meia getting annoyed. Nix just smirked.

Soon the pilots started to arrive all expect one. "Where's Dita?" Jura asked as Hibiki sat down beside her. Hibiki immediately jumped back to his feet and growled "How should I know? What do I look like her baby-sitter?". At this Nix stood, "Sit down soldier, this is a planning room not a battlefield" scolded Nix.

"Hmph" said Hibiki sitting down again annoyed at his telling off. Nix sat down too with Meia looking at him, she was about to speak when Dita entered. "I'm sorry, I'm late" she said sitting in the front row beside Nix.

With this Meia began explaining their new formation. Until "forget it" Dita said cutting Meia off. "Don't bother, because I won't be combining with him any more" she continued shocking the pilots around the room.

Quickly taking advantage of the situation Jura looked over to Dita and said "Ah I get it. You're starting to get bored with Mr. Alien aren't you?" Slowly shaking her head Dita sadly said "No. I've realized that Mr. Alien isn't happy with me, so from now on you can combine with him Jura".

In the back of the room Hibiki nervously turned his head looking back and forth at Dita and Jura. "Dita." said Meia harshly snapping the attention back to her. "I will tolerate the mixing of private matters in this room, This isn't a game" Meia continued. "Yes I'm sorry" said Dita sadly. The room fell quiet and Meia began again.

Finally the meeting finished and they were all ordered to go and practise. The pilots nodded and made their way. However one remained behind. "Good job on handling miss Dita" Nix said as he met her outside the meeting room door. "Is that joke? Or are you agreeing with the way, I dealt with it" Meia said as the two made their way.

"No I think you did the right thing, if it was me they both be running laps around the whole ship until it was sorted" Nix smiled."I see, I think that's why I'm in charge" said Meia in her cold voice,Nix smiled "maybe?" He huffed as they walked on to the hanger. In space Nix watched as Meia commanded the dreads.

"Her past certainly does not reflect her now" he said with a sigh. From his top pocket he pulled out a small black book and began to write. Meanwhile Miea was noticing Dita not concentrating on her formation. "Dita you're response time is dropping" Meia said "oh I'm sorry" Dita said softly as she got back into formation.

Gascongne sighed as she watched the pilots from the monitoring room. "Well this is no good, the girl's mind is somewhere else" she said watching Dita ship struggled through out the training. After the training the pilots were in the cafeteria eating lunch.

Meia looked at Nix talking with Duelo and Hibiki. He seemed to make them happy and they laughed with him. "He's trouble" said Barnette angrily eating her lunch. Meia looked at her. "You seem jealously" said Meia looking at her team mate. "Me of him ha" Barnette huffed looking as Jura started to talk to Nix.

"So tell me dark heart ,what do think of my formation"she said in her flirtatious voice. "Well I think you should leave the formations to your dread leader" said Nix looking at her."She seems to know what she doing" he said returning to his chat with Hibiki and Duelo.

Jura looked stunned at her rejection."That's it" growled barnette getting up from her chair, she walked over to Nix. She pulled him around to face her. "You and me in the simulation room, one on one" she growled angrily and went off. The cafeteria was silent as Nix turned back to Duelo and Hibiki.

"You certainly rattled her cage" said Duelo looking at the calm nix. "I agree" said Nix finishing his lunch. "But fighting will only make her more angry"he continued to say tidying up his plate and cutlery.

"What? So you gunna turn away a duel from a women, I though you were a man" mocked Hibiki looking away. Nix smiled at him. "Fine soldier you've talked me into it, but be warned it won't be pretty" he said leaving to follow barnette. Back at Meia's table, Meia noticed Dita was not eating. "Aren't you going to eat?" Meia asked seeing that Dita hadn't touched her lunch.

Looking up at her commander with sad eyes Dita said. "I've decided that I'm going to change myself. Because I know it's bad for Mr. Alien the way I am now" she said before noticing that Hibiki was watching her.

Seeing Dita's eyes meet with his Hibiki quickly returned to his food swiftly gulping it down.

Meanwhile in the simulation room the two opponents got into their pods and the machines activated. Their battle was fast but short. Barnette dread was no match for the van-defender and it shield. Each bullet she fired bounced back and hit her ship causing more damage. In the end the machine flashed died in combat on Barnette's screen.

"Dam it" she shouted angrily hitting the controls. As the top of the pod opened she was met by Nix. "So your were lucky" she snapped stepping out. "No you were just to rash in your approach" Nix said. "What are you talking about?" shouted Barnette facing him.

Nix looked at her with his cold eye's. "If you weren't so busy attacking you would have seen I dropped by shields for a moment to test you" he said smiling his evil smile. "But even then you missed some shots, wasting ammo and time" he lectured coldly.

Barnette looked away "I don't take advice from men" she grumpy."Then here it is in paper" said Nix giving her a piece of paper from his black book in her hand.

"Its all there, learn from it , after all some day you may have to fight a ship like mine" he said walking past her to the door. She looked at him with the paper in her hand. "Learn it's weakness and you could save someone" said Nix leaving Barnette alone.

As he walked out the simulation room, he saw Dita running down the hall tears streaming from her eyes. "Hmph this can only mean one thing" he thought. He waited until Hibiki came running after her. He then put his good arm out blocking Hibiki's path.

"What the hell are you doing?" shouted Hibiki. "Leave miss Dita alone" Nix scolded. "You seem to have done enough". They both stared at each other until Hibiki huffed and walked away.

A while later in Jura's room Bart was sitting across from Jura while Barnette was sitting away from both of them hanging her head in disbelief. "Well now just what did you young ladies want to talk to me about?" the helmsman asked.

Jura smiled slyly and said "I want you to become better friends with Dita. You see, Dita has been getting in my way lately so I think you should baby sit her and that way I can have the boy all to myself."said Jura. But Bart asked, "Well what's in it for me?" Jura told him "Don't be silly, if you had Dita by your side you would instantly become popular on this ship. You'd eat very well and you'd be treated like royalty". Bart wondered, "Royalty" he said as he began thinking up an image of him being catered to by several cute young ladies.

He develops a mischievous smile, "That doesn't sound bad."he said. The blond Dread pilot speaks with excitement to bart."I want to do it soon!" She thinks up an image of her along with Hibiki standing on a golden craft. The two start laughing at the plan. Barnette sighed, "I can't keep up with them any more."

In a now quiet cafeteria Dita and Ezra were sitting on a table eating sweets and talking. "No matter how much I eat, my stomach still feels empty" Ezra said eating another sweet. Dita giggled at her friend eating so much. But then Ezra spoke to Dita again.

"Your still on good terms with Hibiki right?" Dita shook her head. "I heard him say he can't stand me, that's why I've decided to change myself" she said sadly. But Ezra protested "but Dita I think your wonderful just the way you are". But Dita wouldn't accept that.

"No, I have to change to make Mr Alien happy" Dita sighed. "A rest is some time as good as a change miss Dita" said a voice. The two women looked over to see Nix standing in the door way.

"Oh I didn't see you there Mr Dark Heart" said Ezra eating another sweet. Nix smiled. "Yes a lot of people have said the same thing" he said walking over to Ezra. "So how is the baby miss Ezra?" he asked noticing Ezra stuff more sweets down her face. "Oh very well, thank you for asking Mr dark heart" she smiled.

"It's my pleasure a new life is special, it has no past,it has fresh start." he said looking at Dita "I wonder" he said looking back at Ezra. "Miss Ezra would you change for your baby?"asked Nix, Ezra thought about this.

"I guess but I think the baby likes the way I am" she said stuffing more sweets. Nix laughed quietly. "Yes I'm sure it does" he said looking at Dita. "Change is good miss Dita ,but being yourself is what people know and love" he said turning away. Dita tried to speak but she couldn't. They both watched as Nix left. His sliver hair seem to shine a the light hit medials glittering in the hallway's lights.

"He's seems very strict" said Ezra stuffing another sweet in her mouth. Dita smiled "I agree, but I think Mr dark heart a softy too" she smiled. They both laughed and returned to talking.

Meanwhile in the Reg block Gascongne was playing Hibiki in a game of poker. "How's this flush! This is a man's game baby so give up" he barked at her throwing down his cards. Gascongne revealed her hand calmly. "Four of a kind" she said with a smile.

Hibiki's eye's twitched with anger as he watched Gascongne shuffle the deck then deal out their cards. "Four of a kind" hibiki yelled slamming his new set of cards down. "Straight flush" Gascongne said showing her cards.

"You know kid sometimes its better just to stick with what cards you've got" Gascongne said shuffling the deck. Hibiki looked at her.

"Because you can't beat me" she smiled cockily. Hibiki froze at this, perhaps it was his crushing defeat as he fell short again on the cards or maybe Gascoigne words stuck something in his heart.

"It better just to stick with what you got" he said thinking about what he had said. Suddenly the alarm sounded and Hibiki rushed off to the hanger. As he arrived he was meet by Nix waiting for him. "Get in and get out there soldier" he ordered. Hibiki nodded and got into his vanguard. Nix followed in his van-defender and the two pilots left to formed up with the dreads.

Out in space Meia and Barnette were waiting for the men when, "This is Dark Heart in position" Nix said appearing on their communications screen's. But then Meia noticed something. "Hey Barnette where's Jura?" she asked. Back in Jura's room her and the helmsman were laughing hysterically at their fantasies as they continued to sip more wine. "Yeah well that's it" said Barnette almost embarrassed to say it.

"No matter, I will take miss Jura's place in the formation" said Nix over communications. "Agreed" said Meia readying herself. Meanwhile Inside Dita's dread, Hibiki's picture appeared on her communication monitor.

"Hey listen, just don't do anything you wouldn't normally do, its just that...dammit now you've got me confused. Just don't change, you got that" he yelled as his picture disappeared.

Dita's eyes widened with joy at Hibiki's words. "Sure" she said happily. "All right then let's go" Hibiki grinned as the two ships combined into Vandread Dita and sped towards the incoming enemy.

"Seems soldier got his little problem sorted." said Nix appearing on Meia dread screen. "Yes, but now is the time to fight not talk" she smirked. "Ha your the boss, leader" said Nix as they all raced into battle.

It was after the battle that Nix and Meia meet again in the hanger watching the team leave the hanger. "They did good work today" said Nix standing beside Meia. "They did, but you still haven't told me, what you were going to tell me in the meeting room" she said looking at him. Her eye's sent shivers down Nix's spine.

"Hmph well, perhaps it is the wrong time to tell you" he said trying to leave. "Don't run away, tell me" she said watching him with her light blue eye's.

Nix stopped he didn't know what came over him, but he faced her and said. "I talked to your mother" he said in his cold voice. Meia looked angrily at him. "Are you playing tricks again? Because this one is not funny" she said seeming almost hurt.

Nix then turned away. "I don't do tricks miss Meia, and after hearing your life, I can see you don't either" he snapped back."My choices are my own, how you know my past life is unknown to me. But for your sake I hope we never have this conversation again" she said coldly walking out. Nix sighed he knew it was the wrong time. But now it was out, he no longer felt he was hiding anything from her.


	7. A new face and a forgiveness

**Chapter 7 A New Face and a Forgiveness**

Continuing their journey the Nirvana and her crew stumbles across an abandoned Mission station, seeing it as a free opportunity to resupply, A team is sent to look for anything useful.

Within the central engine room Dita, Hibiki, Meia and Nix were gathering materials and tools to take back to the Nirvana. "Its really cool that the captain remembered about this space station" Dita said looking up towards the top of the central pillar. "This isn't a space station" Pyoro said hovering next to her at waist height. "Its officially called a Mission" he lectured.

"Enough with the chatter you two." said meia trying to open a control panel. "We've got a lot of work to get done here." Meia said finally opening the control panel with a tug. "You call this work?" Pyoro said hovering over to her. "All your doing is looting the place" he added. Continuing her work, Meia said. "Consider it salvaging abandoned assets then". Dita looked over at Nix who seem to be working on another control panel the other side of the central engine room.

"Dark heart, find anything?" called Meia in her commanding voice."Still working on it leader, seems this panel was locked. I'll tell you when I have it" said Nix sticking his energy dagger into control panel.

Meanwhile Hibiki was moving stuff to the transport ship when he noticed something move in the shadows around him. "I wonder" he thought giving chase to the shadow. Hibiki went off with Pyoro following behind him. "I'm sure, I just saw it" Hibiki muttered just before something jumped down in front of him with a wicked laugh.

The short hairy creature grinned mischievously before pouncing towards him. Hibiki ducked. But Pyoro however was not so lucky for he was the creatures target from the start. As the hairy creature grabbed hold of him and began licking him."Knock it off Butan" a deep voice said from behind Hibiki.

Turning around Hibiki looked up at the tall figure standing before him, it was a man. He was dressed in tribal clothing and had a red glass piece over his right eye with twin green slash marks running under his left eye. "Your a man, aren't you?" Hibiki asked amazed.

The man looked at him,"You are a man, you must have come here to save us" he said happily as he tried to run towards him only to be met with the barrel of the man's gun at his head. "Sorry but". But before the man could continued, he quickly got behind Hibiki and wrenched his arm behind his back holding him as a shield. Hibiki looked to see Meia in front of him.

Meia had attempted to sneak up on the man, her fist held out with her laser ring glowing faintly. The strange man gave an impressed smile. "Your a woman huh?"he said. "So what if I am" Meia responded keeping her ring pointed at his forehead. Quickly releasing Hibiki the man stood up and held his gun to the side.

"Its my policy never to kill women" he said peacefully. A metal scrapping sound echoed behind him and the man quickly gave another smile. "Well it looks like you've got me surrounded" he said calmly twirling his gun in his hand before throwing it to the other hand and handing it to Barnette, who had her own gun pointed at his head. Meanwhile while Jura had a sword to the back of his neck.

I assume your some kind of gang?" the man asked not even flinching. "We prefer to be called pirates" Meia said standing firm. "What even commander boy over there?" the man said moving is head to point at Nix. Who arrived with his dagger drawn. "Even me" smiled Nix flipping his dagger around in his right hand.

The man then looked at Hibiki. "And this lady over there?" the man asked. "Hey I'm a guy buster" Hibiki barked. The strange man immediately began laughing. "What's so funny" Hibiki demanded angrily. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to laugh, but you gotta admit its easy to mistake you for a girl because your such a cute little thing" the man said still laughing .

Nix looked at the man coldly. "I don't think I like your attitude towards my soldier"he said pointing his dagger at the man. "Whoa easy. I was joking don't shot" smiled the man. Nix huffed he did not like this man. From behind them Dita began screaming as the orangutan called Butan grabbed her boot and began licking it.

Pointing his thumb towards Dita and the orangutan, he motioned for permission to stop the orangutan. Meia nodded her head, but kept her ring pointed at him. Walking over to Butan the man grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her up. "That's enough out of you Butan" the man said as the orangutan smiled. "Your partners in trouble, if you hadn't noticed and your over here being useless" he said taking a dazed Pyoro from the monkey's arms. Every seemed fine until.

"Now" he yelled swiftly turning around and throwing the Navi-bot at Meia nailing her in the head. Barnette readied her gun, but Butan jumped on her head before launching himself into the rafters above. Jura and Nix both swung at the man's head, but he ducked down and rolled back, springing himself to his feet before running away. As Hibiki yelled for him to come back and fight the Missionary shook as a harvest fleet attacked from outside.

"The harvesters, everyone out" shouted Nix going over to help Meia up. "I'm fine" she said getting up from the attack on her own. "Let's go" she order and the two ran to catch up with the other's. As they all ran down the halls with shutters closing rapidly behind them Hibiki shouted "Man, this sucks, What's going on now?" Meia answered him as she ran. "I guess pirates like us aren't exactly welcome around here".

After they make it to their ships, they immediately depart and flew into battle.

Refusing to combine with Dita, Hibiki drew his Vanguard's axe and with ease destroyed several cube types harvest ship. "Dark heart, we need a shield in case of damaged dreads" order Meia over the radio. "All right" said Nix activating his shield, the huge green energy shield covered his van-defender.

"Shield ready" said Nix over the radio ."All right dreads move out!" Meia ordered and the battle began. It was a hard battle and Nix soon had Barnette's ship in his shield. "Tough work huh?"said Nix through the radio to barnette as they sat there. "Like you would know" she said back.

"Is that a challenge miss Barnette?" smiled Nix through her communication screen. "Maybe dark heart" she said smirking. Barnette readied her ship to go but before she could go the van defender blasted off leaving her behind. She watched as Nix van-defender hand shields flipped over and were replaced by two huge energy cannons.

"Computer activate shot cannons" said Nix with a grin. The guns on the van-defender arm light up with green lights. "Target" said Nix looking though his screen locking on to about 20 harvester cube-type ships. "And fire!" he order.

Suddenly twenty lighting fast green energy shots fired from the guns blasting their targets to nothing. "What the?" Barnette was amazed. Nix just huffed as he reactivated his shields. "Return to the battle miss barnette" he said through her screen and Barnette did.

Meanwhile over the radio's Nix heard Jura cry. "No fair. I won't forgive you for this, Dita" The redhead made a mocking face and stuck her tongue out on Jura screen.

"Too bad. You won't be combining today. All right, let's go" She cried as Hibiki looked away from the two women, his face riddled with annoyance. Vandread Dita shoulder cannons aim at the mission station "and fire!" shouted Dita as the cannons fired their energy beams destroying the mission station in one blow.

Hibiki sighed as Nix appeared on the vandread's radio. "Soldier who was controlling that ship, You or your partner?" Nix smirked. "We both are" Hibiki shouted defending his pride.

Meanwhile The strange man from the mission station looked on from his ship in amazement.

He gasped. "Did you just see what I saw?"he said to Butan The orangutan nods. Then the man gets a deceiving smile on his face. "Butan, my friend I think we've just hit the jackpot." he said. Suddenly his ship begins to rock as Harvesters start attacking him as well.

The man looks on calmly then says "I suppose it's time. Butan knock yourself out." The monkey hops into a red humanoid machine and goes trigger happy destroying the cube-types before them, the man runs a hand through his hair as the ammunition meters swiftly declines.

After a few minutes of non-stop firing Butan's machine finally runs out of ammo. Butan let's out a satisfied exhale. The crew of the Nirvana merely looks on. As they return to nirvana with their goods.

However when they arrived back they all were called to the bridge. As on the bridge floating screen was the strange man from the mission station the text under him revealing his name. "Rabat".

"What a shame, all that loot gone to waste" Captain Magno said. " Hey that's my line" Rabat said acting aggravatingly. "My engine was damaged because I was trying to be nice and help you ladies out, now what are you going to do about it?" he asked with a smile. "Just who do you think your talking to? We're pirates and we never asked for help" Magno said, her voice sounded offended as if Rabat was mocking them.

Rabat replied with that "Oh really? Then I suppose you don't care about leaving this behind, do you?" Butan held up a familiar robot. At that Dita cried "Oh no. We forgot Pyoro". Magno sighed "I suppose we have no choice then, Come on board."she said. BC looked at the captain with shock. "But captain for a robot?" she questioned.

"He is part of the crew and this crew never leaves anyone behind" said the captain. Rabat smiles with a reply of, "Right O. And once I'm up there we can discuss a little business" with that his screen fades.

Nix looks at Meia who looks at the captain. "Meia take some crew down to welcome our visitor" the captain said. Meia nods leaves. "Dark Heart" Magno said looking at Nix. "You stay here, I want you and BC to observer this man" she said looking at him with her old eyes. "Of course captain" said Nix bowing.

The three watched on the bridge's screen as Rabat entered the ship only to be greeted by the women holding guns.

"He shows no fear, he's done this before" said BC looking. "I think we have a man who play with his words" said Nix looking at the captain. Magno smiled at Nix. She did enjoy his way of putting things. "Oh so you saying we have a con artist huh" smiled the old captain. Nix nodded.

They continued to watch as Rabat annoyed Hibiki before being escorted away by Meia . "Would you like a guard on him?" asked BC to magno. "No allow him the illusion of being free for now. If he does try anything he won't get far" Magno said flipping through what seemed to be fortune cards on her desk. She then turned over one and said. "The Hermit" showing them the card.

"Perhaps you would allow me to follow him captain?" asked Nix bowing. The old women smiled. "Well Dark Heart If you insist ,but don't give yourself away" smiled the old captain. "Thank you captain" said Nix bowing.

Soon Rabat was shown up to the bridge, Nix watched from a distance as Rabat and the captain spoke."So what favour do you want from us?" she asked looking at Rabat from her chair. "I just need time to repair my ship and I hope to do some business while I'm here" he smiled. Mango looked at BC who looked Rabat. Nix just stared at Rabat with a cold stare from the top deck of the control room.

"Fine you have until you ship is repaired" said Magno looking at the smiling Rabat. "Thank you"he said smiling.

But Nix still believed this man was trouble. "I will find you out Rabat" he thought watching Rabat leave the bridge unguarded . After a while Rabat made his way to one of the halls and began selling some merchandise to the ladies of the ship.

"Since your my first customer I'll give that piece to you for free" Rabat said as Parfet held a piece of machinery in her arms. "Really" she said amazed at his offer. "Yes, use my item to make your self even more beautiful ladies" he said as the women dived into his wares.

But not far away Nix was watching from the cover of a wall. "Hmph first get a good relationship with your victim" thought Nix watching Rabat smiling as the women took his Items. One of the women was Dita who got a lipstick.

She took it to her room and applied it to her pale lips. She smiled as it shone crimson red on her lips. She then went off to find Hibiki to show him only to bump into Rabat in another hall way. "Well hello petty lady, perhaps you can help me?" he said smiling at her.

Nix watch them talk until. "Dark Heart" said a voice behind him. Nix turned around to see Barnette standing there. "What is it miss Barnette, I'm very busy" he said trying to look at barnette and keep an eye on Rabat.

"BC said Rabat's ship had no damage on it" she replied. Nix looked at her with shock."What?" he said. Then he turn around to see Rabat gone. "Dam it" he growled looking around.

"She also said something about the vanguard" said Barnette remembering. Nix thought about this then. "Ah the vanguard, that's what he after" said Nix suddenly realizing.

Meanwhile in the hanger Hibiki had caught Rabat trying to steal his vanguard and was yelling at him. "You've got some nerve. Is that eye of yours working right!" Hibiki yelled. Rabat smiled as he points to his left eye "Sure is" he said. He the removed the glass piece from his right eye "So is this one too" he mocked. Nix finally arrived at the hanger to see Hibiki lose his temper with Rabat.

"Your not wanted here so get lost" Hibiki yelled. The tradesmen looked down at the young pilot.

"And what if I don't want to?"he smirked . Hibiki growled "Then I'll throw you out by force" hibiki shouted. Rabat laughed as he walked down the stairs from the vanguard to the hanger floor. "Why you!" Hibiki yelled charging towards Rabat.

Just as Hibiki reached him a blinding flash came from Rabat's eye piece stopping Hibiki long enough for Rabat to slam his knee into hibiki's stomach."You cheater" Hibiki coughed as he slid down Rabat's front side. "Those are your rules, not mine kid" Rabat said picking Hibiki up by his neck in one hand. "And if your going to challenge me. DON'T DO IT WITH SOMEONE ELSE WORDS" Rabat shouted punching Hibiki in the face, knocking him back several feet.

Nix watched as Rabat continued to beat Hibiki , he wasn't about to blow his cover. Rabat then began lecturing Hibiki on how a real man speaks from his heart instead of using words he heard from others as he continued to beat him senseless . Finally he grabbed the beaten Hibiki by the head and slamming his face into the hanger floor.

Dita cried for Rabat to stop. Stopping for a moment Rabat smirked. "How could I resist" he laughed, but the laughing soon stopped as Hibiki bit into his right leg. "Arr you little" screamed Rabat falling back. He then kicked Hibiki away with a blow from his left boot.

Seeing Hibiki in trouble Dita ran over to him as he lay on the floor, she knelled next to him, "Mr alien" she said worried for him before she could check to see if he was all right, Rabat kicked her away with his boot.

"Wrong move Rabat" growled Nix as he leapt into action. Rabat was about to finish what he started when."So the man who plays with words and also has no manners" said Nix entering the hanger as Rabat looked at him. "Oh it's commander boy, come to the rescue have we?" smiled Rabat. "My honer as a leader tells me I should not interfere with a soldiers fight" Nix said taking his position.

"But you are hardly what I call a challenge" mocked Nix drawing his duel type dagger. "Just words boy" smirked Rabat stepping towards him. The two walked towards each other, it was going to be a fight to remember.

"Someone please help, Mr alien been hurt and now Mr dark heart going to fight" cried a tearful Dita down the bridge monitor. Meia was ready to go help but but Magno stopped her with her hand held out.

"No, this is how men deal with their problems" she said watching Nix and Rabat square up to each other. "Beside it could be interesting to see what our vanguard leader can do in a ground" she smiled.

The fight began as the two jumped back. Rabat tried his flash trick again but Nix covered his eye's with his left hand and swung the dagger in his right hand cutting Rabat's sleeve . "I'm impressed commander boy, not many can avoid that" mocked Rabat readying his fists. Nix smiled his eye's still covered.

"You should learn to shower more" he said. "What ..you?" said Rabat angrily. "Even if I can't see you, I can smell you" smirked Nix. "How amusing" laughed Rabat charging at Nix.

Nix returned his dagger to his pocket and readied himself. The two locked in combat as they grabbed each other hands and pushed each like two wild bull fighting with their horns

"So were would you like me to leave another scar ?" asked Nix pushing Rabat back. "Ha your a strange one aren't ya" said rabat pushing back. " As for the hole I'll skip" said Rabat cheerfully as he forced his arms up breaking Nix's grip. He smacked Nix in the face with a quick punch. But Nix countered with a throw.

He grabbed Rabats by his tribel shirt and threw Rabat to his side, sending the con man flying across the hanger. Nix drew his dagger again, activing the normal blade. He then ran towards the downed Rabat.

As Rabat rose he was met by Nix's dagger. "So feeling ready to leave now?" smiled Nix wiping the blood from the right side of his mouth. Slowly getting to his feet Rabat backed away and smiled as if nothing happened.

"All right, I know when I'm not wanted. I'll leave quietly" he smirked holding his hands up. But Nix was not finished, he walked towards him ready to finish him when.

"That's enough" shouted a voice. Looking back Nix saw Meia aiming her laser ring at both of them. "There no need for this to go on" she ordered. Nix sighed he hated letting a guy like this live. Backing away he looked over to the doorway to see several of the crew watching on with fear all over they faces, even Dita and the beaten Hibiki seem scared.

Seeing this Nix returned his dagger back into his pocket. Then walked back up to Rabat again this time he whispered to him in a dark tone. "Your lucky, if she hadn't shown up you'd be dead". With that Rabat left on his ship and Nix was sent back to his open cell to clean up and calm down.

But Magno was not done with the con man. She ordered the ship to chase Rabat down, but the machine Rabat gave to Parfet disabled the ship for a few moments giving him a chance to escape into space. The chase was over before it was even started and life return to normal on the nirvana.

An hour later, Nix was still in his open prison cell resting. He was wiping his face with a light blue towel, when heard foot steps coming towards his cell. He didn't move not even looking to see who it was. But then someone coughed loudly. He looked to see Meia standing there. "Oh leader, what can I do for you?" he asked getting up from his bed. Meia walked over to him.

"The captain sent me down to tell you good job on dealing with Rabat" she said in her cold voice ." I see" said Nix looking at her. "Also I came to check on you on behalf of the crew they were worried" she said in her commander voice hiding her concern for him.

"Oh I see" said nix with a smile." Well tell the crew I'm fine and tell then I'm sorry for scaring them" he said sitting down again. I'll report back then" said Meia. She turned to go when Nix spoke up. "Listen ur Meia" he said calmly. Meia faced him still with her stone cold face on. "You got some spare time for an wounded leader?" he smiled, at this Meia froze.

"I would like to apologize for what I said in the hanger a few days ago" he said looking at her. Meia looked back at him in shock. Her body was torn between her heart and brain again. "I'm can't ,work,sorry" she said flustered as she left.

As she walked down the prison hallway, she began to think to her self. "Ah I almost gave in, what's wrong with me?" she thought angrily continuing her walk.


	8. Water,water and salt

**Chapter 8 Water,water and salt**

Time on the nirvana flew by for it's crew as once again they found another planet. Only this time it's seemed alive. "99% of the planet's surface is covered with water and it's got a nitrogen and oxygen atmosphere which means it fulfils the requirements for life" BC said to captain Magno as the camera of the Nirvana continued to scan the planet's surface and zoom in on areas of interest.

The camera began zooming in revealing a small island "Hmm? There's an island. And the inhabitants appear to be humanoid, we've also detected a colonization ship on the ocean floor" BC continued. The captain let out a low chuckle and said. "Well then, why don't we say hello to our long lost relatives".

As the ship drew closer to the planet the bridge bunnies were in awe at its beauty "This planet is so beautiful" Belvedere said her eyes glittering. "Beauty usually hides something ugly" said Nix appearing beside to the captain.

Suddenly the alarm sounded. "What is it?" BC asked quickly. Ezra immediately checked her monitor and gasped. "Enemy approaching from behind the planet"she said panicked.

"How many are there?" BC asked with Nix listening. "Approximately twelve cube types and some strange machine I can't identify" Ezra replied checking her monitor once again.

"A new type of enemy?" thought Nix ."I must see this" he said running off to the hanger. As he arrived he stopped. Hearing voices he looked around the hanger to see Hibiki being talked too by Jura with Barnette holding a camera recording the action.

"The time has come" she said to a stunned hibiki." Listen up you and me are finally going to combine in the upcoming battle, Hibiki" she said playing up to the camera. Nix sighed, "poor soldier, good thing my van-defender does not combine" he thought continuing on this way. As the battle began Nix activated his shield and took his place on the battlefield.

As he stabilised his shield, he watched as the enemy evading Hibiki's every strike. "Hmm so our enemy also seems to learn to adapt" said Nix watching. After another failed strike against one of the cube-types Hibiki gritted his teeth. "Stop moving around" he growled at them before Jura's dread hovered over him.

Playfully she spoke to him through the radio "Hey there. Are you ready to combine now?" Refusing the offer Hibiki prepared to fly away but before he could Dita cut in front of him. "Mr. Alien. If your going to combine with someone do it with me" she said blowing him a kiss. Hibiki growled and then yelled at both of them. "I've had enough of the both of you. Stay outta my way"he growled flying towards the enemy fuming.

Watching as Hibiki lost his temper as he swung his sword around like a manic. Nix contacted him by his radio. "sSoldier calm down and concentrate". When suddenly he was interrupted by Jura announcing her plan to combine with the Vanguard to the entire crew over the radio.

"Miss Jura this radio is for battle commands only ,not your personal announcements" scolded nix. Jura just huffed as she disappeared off the radio. But Nix then noticed three cube-types began latching on to the Vanguard forcing it into a dive bomb. "Soldier, shake them off" ordered Nix.

"What the hell do you think I'm doing!" yelled Hibiki as he dived towards the planet. Nix was about to help when Jura rocketed past him. "Dam women she just won't give up" thought Nix opening radio contact with her.

"Miss Jura return to your position or I will inform your commander" threatened Nix. "Sorry but I'm not interested" she said cutting Nix off. He watch as she chased after Hibiki ship onto the planet.

Nix sighed ."What an idiot" he said before Meia picture came up on his communications. "Dark heart, the captain has asked we return to the ship until we're needed" she ordered. "Roger" said Nix turning the van-defender for home.

Meanwhile on the planet Jura's dread and the Vanguard crashed into the sea with a huge splash. As Nix returned to the bridge, he saw something erupted from the water on the bridge's screen. "So another combine" said Nix watching the new machine came from the water .

The ship retained the crimson red colour of Jura's dread, but its shape was completely different, it had two long arms arcing out in front of it and stopping at a crystal as if holding it while several discs hovered around the ship itself.

On the Nirvana's bridge the crew looked at several images of the new ship. "It looks like they've become a new type of fighter" Magno said staring at the image of the new ship. BC added "Yes, but what is it?" Aramone looked back at her and with a faulted face and said "It's a crab". Nix smiled at the picture. "Well I hope this is what miss Jura wanted" he thought.

Unfortunately Nix was wrong as Jura's cried in displeasure in the new ships cockpit. But Hibiki wasted no time. As the harvesters began attacking the new Vandread, He quickly attempted to figure out the controls. But Jura's whining distracted him. "Will you shut up already!" he barked, "We don't have time to worry about the dam ship, we have to fight" he continued to bark.

Jura cried once again before slamming her fists on to one of the controls which turned out to be the ship's thrusters. Causing the new Vandread to sped across the ocean. Finally after a while the two managed to destroy the harvesters. But their communications went down.

Back in the hanger magno spoke to nix through a communication screen. "Dark heart" called Magno, Nix faced the captain. "Go find our two pilots and establish communications then return understand" she ordered. "Yes mam" said Nix returning to his van-defender. It took little time for Nix to find the two as their ships had been washed up on the island's shore.

He opened up communications and spoke out. "Hibiki, Juan report on condition and damage" he said. "I'm fine, but captain whiner over here won't shut up" Hibiki growled as Jura continued crying over the radio. Nix nodded."All right I'm returning to base, make sure to stay on dry land until we need you" said Nix blasting off again.

On the bridge they were working on contacting the people of the plant. It was quiet until Ezra finally said. "Communications established". "Put in on screen" Magno ordered. The screen opened showing a single woman with bright blonde hair and a purple robe with an opera mask in the centre of it.

The lady took a quick bow before introducing herself "Greetings weary travellers my name is Fanita and welcome to the most beautiful planet in the universe Anpathos". She said smiling.

The captain looked at the women unhappily ."We've been waiting for you for a long time" Fanita said. "Waiting?" said BC confused. You must be the Munyo are you not?" the blonde-haired woman asked them.

"We are certainly not these Munyo you speak of. Pardon me for being so brash, but we'd like to visit you. There are several questions I'd like to ask you" Magno said.

Fanita seemed a little surprised by Magno's request."We're right in the middle of our ceremony and aren't prepared to greet you properly I'm afraid"she said. Magno gave a small smile. "There's no need" she said before opening a communication screen to Bart.

"Bart can you hear me? Some of us are going down to the planet, take good care of the ship, I'm leaving you in charge".

Bart was shocked to hear that he was being made temporary captain. "Now wait a minute captain" he began before Magno cut him off "Oh and one more thing your not allowed to run away understand" she ordered.

Meanwhile on the shore Hibiki stared at the people of the planet wondering why they all had strange festive clothing. A long silk purple dress and a white mask was what they wore. Both men and women wore this."What a strange place" thought hibiki. When suddenly he saw the transport ship landing from the nirvana within the city. He knew it had to be the captain, so he left Jura to whine and entered the city.

Back on the nirvana hanger Dita was nervously pacing back and forth fretting that Hibiki and Juan were alone with each other down on the planet's surface, while she was stuck on the Nirvana. "Just try to calm down Dita" Meia said calmly as she leaned against a hanger wall.

"Hibiki will be more interested if there is a fight to be had ,then deal with miss Jura" said Nix working on his van-defender again. "So you think he's not with Jura" Dita said looking at Nix with her puppy like eyes. "Yes miss Dita I have faith in my instincts" said Nix trying to calm her down.

Back on the island Hibiki's voice called out, "Hey Old lady". Magno looked over to the stone staircase to see the young pilot approaching. "Ah Little one! You're safe, are you? "She said smiling.

Then BC asked, "What about Jura?" Hibiki placed both hands on his hips, "I don't want to talk about Princess Crabby". The captain assured. "Well as long as she's safe, why don't you follow me? She said. The four of them enter some sort of shine, it had long stairs case leading to the top.

As they stooped Fanieta spoke. "This is the shrine that leads to the holy path". Magno looked around then asked. "First off, can tell you us of the 'Munyo' that you're waiting for?" The blonde women answered. "They are the ones who guided our ancestors to this blessed land, our people are very grateful. We consider the Munya the foundation of Anpathos and we believe that they're in need of us."

Hibiki then asked out of curiosity "Need of you? What for?" Fanieta smiled. "According to the prophecy, they are in need of the spiral code". "The spiral code?" Bc mumbled, she looks at the picture above Fanieta and exclaimed "The spinal cord".

On the nirvana Nix and Meia were now both talking about his van-defender while Dita still walked up and down worried.

"So it's a vanguard built for defence" said Meia. "Yes I created it when I worked on the men's planet" said Nix looking at his van-defender. "It work well against other vanguards, so I put the idea to the military and but they took my idea and created the new vanguard you fought" said Nix looking at Meia.

"I see" she said but before she could ask anything more the alarm sounded. The enemy had began surrounding the Nirvana. Bart was worrying "What now?" he asked himself looking at the enemy ships,before Meia's voice grabbed his attention.

"That's obvious isn't it. You want us to set up a line of defence around the ship right?" she said waiting for his order. Bart was hesitant, but quickly yelled an order for all Dreads to scramble immediately "and Bart" said Nix appearing on Burt screen. Bart looked at him worried. "No running" Nix smiled.

With this the dreads flew into battle with the van-defender following. "Formation C now" ordered Meia as the dread set up their defence around the nirvana. "Dark heart I want a shield at the front to give us protection from long range shots" order Meia over the radio to Nix. "Roger" Nix said flying to the front of the dreads formation.

"Computer active level 4 shield" ordered Nix from her dread. Meia watch as the van-defender held it arms out wide. From its hands the van defender produced a huge shield covering the nirvana and the dreads. "Shield ready" said Nix over the radio. Meia nodded and waited for the chance to strike.

Back on the island colony Magno and Fanieta were arguing over the so called destiny of Anpathos. After hearing Fanieta's anger over her insult to their god Magno resigned her argument and turned to leave before doubling over in pain. "My back gone out, I can't walk like this"she said in pain holding her back.

Hibiki watched as the captain looked at him with her old eye's. "Well I certainly don't no desire to remain on this planet or to die here, you get me little one?" She smirked.

Hibiki nodded knowing what she meant ,he ran back to his vanguard. As he arrived he saw Jura still sulking, he tried to talk to her but no avail."Hey are you listening?" he yelled now getting annoyed with her moping. Annoyed Jura quickly turned around and answered.

"Unfortunately yes" before returning to her mopping. Hibikithen grabbed her by the shoulder. "Look if really cared about BC and Magno then you'll stop moping and protect this planet" said Hibiki .

With this short speech Jura seemed to find her will once again as she quickly stood up and said "Let's combine right away". Turning around she gave Hibiki a seductive glare, "And if I catch you slacking off there'll be hell to pay" she smiled.

Meanwhile Nix shield and the nirvana shield were taking a battering from enemy fire " "Ah. We're done for" screamed Burt ."Shut up and hold you ground" shouted Nix rocking as as the enemies fire hit his van-defender.

Bart was still panicking when. "Dark hearts right, don't be such a coward" said a voice over the radio. "Captain?" said Bart listening. "I've been alive for a long time and seen many deaths along the way. Every time someone died I cursed myself for my powerlessness.

I cursed myself for not being able to do a single thing to save those people. There was still so much left to do so many things left unsaid so many regrets. When I think about these things it feels like I'm being torn apart. But even in their final moments not a single one gave up on life each of them a brilliant shining star, I was proud to have known them and even prouder to have called them friends and that's why I can never forgive those who can't choose their own destinies" said Magno looking at Fanieta with a glare.

Her speech seem to change Bart. He smiled. "All right I won't move, no attack will move me ,I will stand my" but his was cut off by Hibiki over the radio. "Move it" shouted Hibiki.

With this Burt moved the ship away from the plant as Hibiki shot past in the vandread. "Well I.." said Bart looking disappointed again. Nix sighed over the radio. "Nice job navigator, next time you might want to cut your speech short" said Nix also seeming to be boosted by the arrival of reinforcements.

He watched as Hibiki and Jura arrived used their Vandread's new powers. Little discs that shot out the Vandread created a massive shield around the planet. Just then Nix saw Meia aiding Dita when a squad of harvesters clung onto her dread. "Mr dark-heart you have to help Meia" cried Dita through the radio. Nix sighed, "fine" he said closing down his shield.

"Computer auto target enemy harvesters on Miss Meia ship" order Nix as his screen suddenly was filled with red circles. "Targets locked" the computer said."Chance of friendly fire" asked Nix "89%" the computer respond. Nix sighed. "Switch to Manuel mode" he ordered.

Inside his cockpit another joystick rose in front of him. Nix grabbed it and took aim. "Dita shoot these things!" shouted Meia but Dita hesitated , "I ..I ".

Suddenly a green energy shot destroyed a harvester on top of Meia's dread. Meia listened over the radio. "All right Mr black heart" cheered Dita over the radio as Nix continued to fire destroying the harvesters on Meia's ship.

"I don't need your help return to your shield!" ordered Meia. Nix stopped firing. "Fine it's your choice" said Nix returning to forming his shield. Over the planet the harvester's containment ship moved closer to Vandread Jura and Anpathos.

Inside the Vandread, Hibiki was ready for it. "If your hungry, how about i give you more than you can eat" he shouted. As he slammed his fist down on the control panel turning the central orb of the Vandread into a vacuum.

Sucking the ocean water from the planet, it shoot the water into the mouth of the containment ship. Nix watched as the water began piling up inside the containment ship and it began shutting down. "My, my soldier you cease to amaze me" Nix said watching as the harvester's containment ship shut down then exploded.

With this the battle was over, the remaining harvesters were destroyed by the dreads and the teams returned home. Nix sighed as he opened the cockpit and jumped out. For there Dita was waiting to speak to him. "Mr black heart"she said smiling at him. "Miss Dita I thought you would be with Hibiki" said Nix wondering what she wanted.

"Mr aliens too tired and sleeping, I came here to say thank you for rescuing Meia" she said smiling. "Thank you, but you hesitated on the battlefield miss Dita expect your commander to have words, next time I do not want to be called to aid her" Nix said coldly walking on.

Dita watched as he walked out the hanger holding his arm again ."Poor Mr dark heart, he's so alone" she said.

On the bridge BC and Magno had just returned. "You look tired, Captain. Why don't you rest?" BC suggested. The old pirate replied "There's somewhere I'd like to visit before that". Walking over the helmsman platform they saw Bart lying on the ground completely exhausted. Bart moaned as he saw them.

"I'm gonna die" he moaned looking up at the captain. Magno stood over him and said, "What's all this about? I was only gone for a bit and look at the shape this ship is in".

Bart quickly got to his feet. "Excuse me? I beg your pardon, but do you have the slightest idea of how hard a time I had while you were gone?" The captain answered with a pleased smile "No, Bart. I have no idea".

As Bart began complaining and making various requests BC looked on with a smile before leaving the bridge.

She walked out to see Nix coming the other way."Nice work out there" BC said to Nix walking past. "Thank you commander" Nix said watching as BC smiled walking on."Hmm, she's different if nothing else" thought Nix watching BC walk on.


	9. A Time of Cheer

**Chapter 9 A Time of Cheer**

Another day on the nirvana began and today was a very special day. Nix was on his bed relaxing when."Come come on, don't drop it" said a voice. Nix got up and peered out his cell to see some of the nirvana crew members carrying a huge tree. "Hmm what this, a tree on a space ship?"He thought. Puzzled by this Nix proceed to follow the crew members until they reached the bridge. "Oh I see" he smiled as he gazed at the bridge.

The female crew members were cheering as they placed Christmas decorations everywhere. Not a single inch of the bridge or the garden section below was left untouched by the Christmas spirit. Well all expect for one person. "Not one for festive atmosphere leader" said Nix walking over to Meia who was watching in annoyance.

"Just because it's a time of cheer, does not mean the enemy will not attack" she said as Nix stood beside her. "Yes you are right leader" Nix said crossing his arms. Meia seemed happy at his answer, at least someone on this ship cared. "However" said Nix smiling at her. Meia looked at Nix again.

"Such a festive atmosphere really does do the old morale good" he said with a smile. Meia just sighed at him."Your all the same" she said coldly walking off. But Nix just kept on smiling as he stood there, watching the ship become more and more like a Santa's grotto.

Meanwhile on the top deck of the bridge the other men looked around astounded about what was happening.

"They said it was some kind of celebration, but the only kind of celebration we had on Tarak isn't what I would call enjoyable" said Bart remembering the hard times. "Interesting and so beautiful"said Duelo looking at the sparkling lights and tall Christmas tree. Hibiki sighed, he really did not like the sound of this festival.

It was then Nix went up to them. "Good morning, how are we all enjoying Christmas?" he smiled. "Ur well" the men really did not know what to say. "You troops do know that it's only polite to give someone special a present today" Nix said still looking at the lights above him.

"What!" said Burt shock at the idea but then he reconsidered. "Well in that case" he thought and he left. "I suppose I must leave as well " said nix looking at the watch he got from the missionary. I must see miss Gasocongne for the parts I need" Nix said walking back down to the lower bridge.

As nix made his way to the Reg block,Nix saw Meia going into the training room. "She's certainly determined" thought Nix as he walked on.

In Reg block the walls were covered with tinsels and brightly coloured lights. "Well look who's turn up girls" said Gascongne looking over at Nix from her desk as he entered. "Welcome Mr dark heart" said the girls happily.

"Merry Christmas to you all" said Nix smiling. "Merry Christmas to you too" said the girls back smiling. Gascongne smiled as Nix walked over to her desk.

"So what can the Reg block do for you today dark heart?" she said with a grin. "I need some scarp metal if you have any please" said Nix. Gascongne looked at him. Nix looked back at her.

"Well" she said waiting. Nix sighed then gave a huge smile. "Ah now that what I like, come on through" Gascongne said getting up. "I really do hate smiling his much" through Nix as he rubbed his cheeks.

Meanwhile in the garden area, Duelo was watching Parfet and her assistant work on some cone shaped machines. "So these machines make snow?" said Duelo having no idea what snow was.

"Yes it's my present to the crew, you can't have the parade without it" she smiled as her assiant passed her a spanner.

"Tell me parfet, what is this snow?" asked Duelo interested. Parfet looked at him astonished. "You don't know what snow is? Well it like magic" she said and with this she began to describe snow.

"Well I hope that enough for ya" said Gascongne handing Nix an arm full of metal. " Its perfect, thank you miss Gascongne" said Nix bowing. "My pleasure dark heart" she smiled. Nix said his farewell and made his way back to his cell.

As he sat down on his bed he noticed Duelo walking past his cell carrying a canvas with some paint. "Going somewhere Doc? said Nix setting down his metal on the cell floor. Duelo walked back to see Nix with all his metal on the floor.

"To work" said Duelo in his cool manner. Nix smiled. "Good luck then doc" he said with a smile. "Thank you" said Duelo walking on.

Finally the two got to work, Duelo began his painting while Nix began to craft the metal into a shape. They both worked hard but soon Nix ran into trouble. "Dam I left my spanner in my van-defender" he said slowly getting up and making his way to the hanger.

As he arrived he saw Gascongne talking to Meia. They seemed to get along but when Meia noticed Nix she left in her dread. "All work and no play" said Nix walking past Gascongne in a dread. "Tell me about it dark heart, tell me about it" she said.

Gascongne sighed heavily when her assistant told her the new chair wouldn't fit in the dreads cockpit. "All right,let me see" said Gascongne grabbing the chair from her assistant. Nix retrieved his spanner from his van-defenders storage space in its right arm and he also retuned to work.

All the while Hibiki was on the hunt for a gift for Dita. "Stupid Christmas,stupid presents" he moaned as he walked onto the bridge. BC was trying to analysing a ice covered comet flying near the ship. But she was having no luck.

"How long time does it take to get a report" she sighed as Hibiki walked past her. "Whoa now that's a comet" he said looking at the ice cover comet out the bridge's window. "Yes. I just wish I could get a report on it" said BC looking around for anyone who wasn't so busy with decorations.

Just then it hit Hibiki. "Gotta go" he said as he dashed off to his vanguard. Meanwhile in his cell Nix was busy working on his gift. When "hello dark heart" said a voice.

Nix looked beside him to see the small Paiway looking at him with her child like eyes. "What can I do for you miss Paiway?" asked Nix busily working. "I was just wondering what you were making" she asked looking at Nix's almost finished gift. "It's a statue miss Paiway" said Nix watching as she crept closer. Leaning her head on his shoulder paiway watched nix work until.

"I want one!"she said as nix glanced at her a second then returned his vision to his work. "Perhaps another time miss Paiway" said Nix finally finishing his gift. "If you don't give me one, I tell everyone your being mean to me" she said with an evil grin.

Nix laughed at this. He enjoyed her childish threats. "All right miss Paiway i'll make you one, on one term" he said looking at her.

She looked at him with a stern face. "You must keep away from the training room after midnight" he said looking at her. Paiway thought about the offer then said. "Sure. Its not like anything happens in there anyway". So with paiway's word, nix began to make Paiway her statue.

Meanwhile on the nirvana giant video screens appeared above the bridge as well as throughout the ship playing a video of a small family enjoying their Christmas together. At first it was a woman holding an infant with a little girl sitting next to her on a brown sofa. Then after a few seconds a man walked over and sat next to them. They seemed happy together which shocked almost everyone on the Nirvana.

But from his cell Nix heard some crew members talking about what they had seen on the video. "Sounds like a Christmas back home" he thought working on Paiway's statue.

It took a long time, but finally Nix finished her statue.

"Its me" Paiway said an amazed paiway as Nix gave her the finished statue. It was of her holding her frog puppet. "I'm glad you like it miss Paiway, now I must be off" said Nix grabbing his gift and running off towards the parade.

Nix listened as he ran the count down had begun and he was going to miss his chance.

"Zero" shouted the crew and with that the captain and Gascoigne began throwing presents randomly to each member of the crew. However seeing a bright flash of light outside everyone turned their attention to the comet out in space. Just then it exploded scattering ice across space making it look like it was snowing outside the ship. The entire crew was in awe at it's beauty.

Yet even with it's beauty Parfet was still sad. "Aw I thought I had it" she said standing back from the broken snow machine, only to bump into Duelo. "I hope this isn't a bad time, but I have this for you" he said handing her a portrait of falling snow.

"I imaged the snow as blood in the body and from what you told me I painted this" he said seeming nervous. Parfet justed smiled and hugged him. "I love it" she whispered. Suddenly the snow machines began working. They all watched as the machine threw snow out.

Meanwhile in the hanger Hibiki had just returned and seem tired. "There you are Mr alien" said Dita running up to him cheerfully. "Here" Hibiki groaned holding his hand out to her. "Most of it melted away already" he said in a regretful tone as he lay back down feeling tired.

From his hand hand Dita took the small piece of ice and watched as it melted away leaving the seed that was frozen inside. "Huh? Oh wow" she gasped as the seed quickly bloomed into a yellow flower that glistened in the light. "It's so pretty, thank you" she said gently closing her hand around it and holding it to her chest.

She was about to say more but Hibiki fell asleep. So she put his present on his chest and left. But she was not the only girl on the ship receiving a surprise gift.

As Meia walked into the training room again a figure was already there waiting for her. "Merry Christmas leader" it said holding a bright blue box out to her.

"Dark Heart" she said shocke, flipping on the light to see the man sitting on her desk. "I'm not one for presents" she said coldly as he dropped it into her hands. Nix smiled at her comment. "That's fine, consider it my thanks for being a good leader" he said walking out.

Meia watched him leave then put the present down on her desk. However as she worked she couldn't get it out for her mind. She looked at it, then at the door then back at the present.

Finally she gave in and opened it. "Ah" she gasped taking her gift out the box. "It's my dread" she said amazed. Nix had made her a model of her dread, all to perfection, the colours, the shape.

She looked at it from all angles."The detail is amazing" she said looking over the statue. "But why would he do this?" she thought about it. But then she smiled.

Perhaps it was the kindness Nix had shown her, or perhaps her head had finally lost a battle with her heart. But for once Meia smiled as she held the gift close to her heart whispering.

"Merry Christmas Nix"


	10. The Decisions Part 1

**Chapter 10 The Decisions part 1 **

Days past on the nirvana and each day Nix and Meia could be found working on battle plans. Sometimes Nix was with Duelo having his right arm wrapped. Even Nix and Hibiki seem to be getting along. As they worked on their ships, they talked about their lives and backgrounds.

Even so what was different was Nix and men seemed finally be accepted into the crew. Each one the crew saw in a good way. Hibiki the brave but grumpy warrior,Duelo the wise doctor,Nix the well spoken leader and ofcourse Bart was well, just Bart. It seemed the crew was finally getting along that is until now.

In the supply hold of the Nirvana Dita was leading Hibiki through the darkened storage room to gather supplies for a special event. After handing him a box of potatoes, she continued walking before stopping at a crate of carrots. "This will do" she exclaimed in her usual cheery voice handing him the box.

"Hurry up" Hibiki groaned as the box became slightly heavier in his arms. Dita looked over her shoulder and apologized. "Oh sorry, that must be getting heavy for you" she said. With this Hibiki straightened himself. "Its fine,I can manage" he said protecting his pride while still struggling to carry the boxes.

Dita giggled "That's just like you Mr. Alien you're so dependable" she smiled reaching down to grab another crate of carrots. She set it on top of the other crate then. "Here take this these too" dita said sweetly piling the two more boxes on top of the tower of boxes Hibiki already had in his arms.

Just as Dita turned around she spotted Paiway on the other side of the shelf where she had just take a box from. "What are you two doing here all alone?" the young nurse asked in a grim, suspicious voice. In a nervous tone Dita replied. "Nothing really, We were just getting some supplies that's all".

Paiway narrowed her eyes. "You look really suspicious to me" paiway said staring at the two with her child like eye's. Dita's went red and she nervously said "It has nothing to do with you Paiway". Groaning Paiway then asked "Hey Dita. You do know what day it is right?"

"Day?" Dita mimicked as she placed her hand around her chin as she thought. "I don't know"she said in her soft tone. After a few seconds of disbelief Paiway sighed then said in an annoyed voice. "Fine" and she left. As the young nurse left Hibiki's was really confused. "I really don't get her"he said still trying to hold the tower of boxes.

Meanwhile at the bridge Parfet was looking through her telescope and zeroed in on Mejere the women's home planet. "I see it, I see it" she said excitedly.

Captain Magno looked down to the engineer. "So how far have we gotten on our journey" said the captain awaiting good news. Parfet thought for a second before speaking. Then with an enthusiastic voice said "I'd say about half way". The captain sighed,This was not the news she wanted.

BC looked at the captain and said "If we've gotten this far that means that the messages we sent must have arrived by now".

The captain nodded. But then Parfet turned around to look at the sub commander and said "Well then again, it could be that the harvest is already over and everyone is already dead" she said making it sound like a joke.

However The bridge crew didn't seem to see that as a joke. Leaving Parfet laughing nervously as she stood in the centre of the bridge as they all stared at her. It was during this, that Nix was being strapped up again by Duelo. "You should leave your ship alone for a while, your doing you arm harm with all this maintenance and upgrading" said Duelo in his calm voice.

"I'm fine doc, I need to finish in case" but Nix was cut off by the pain in his right arm. "You've hurt badly with all this work you've been doing, you must rest" said Duelo putting his equipment away. "Is that an order doc?" asked Nix painful holding his right arm.

"Yes if we were on our planet, I would have called you not fit for duty" Duelo said. Then he faced Nix and smiled his smile. "But since were not, I have to rely on your common sense to tell you when to stop" he said. Nix nodded. "Thanks doc" he said walking out the infirmary.

But it was as Nix walked his right arm seem to hurt more and more. "I'm thinking about it too much" Nix thought holding it. "I'll have to do something to take my mind off it" he said walking on.

Meanwhile in the women's quarters Dita was carrying the crate of carrots she handed to Hibiki earlier and was leading him towards the kitchen. "Hurry up Mr. Alien" she cheered as she turned around to look at Hibiki struggling.

"I'm coming. You know you're really annoying sometimes" Hibiki said trying to look around the crates he was carrying as they wobbled like jelly. Dita was already at the end of the hall when she called back to him. "I'll be in the kitchen hurry up".

Hibiki sighed as she saw her run ahead."I hate this" he thought when suddenly he noticed one of the door slight open, curiously he peeked inside.

In the room was Celtic slipping out of her bear costume. She was a worker on the bridge and seemed to avoid being touched by the men including nix who called her stuffy as he believed that is what is is like inside the costume.

However what hibiki did not noticie was the top box falling off and activating the motion sensor on the door. It flew open sending Hibiki tumbling in right into Celtic. She screamed running out only in her underclothes holding her bear suit in her hands as she ran. Seeing what happened Hibiki quickly retreated to the safety of the kitchen.

Finally arriving after his accident Hibiki dropped the crates in the kitchen and Dita began to work. After a while Hibiki noticed her crying. "Oh why are you crying now?" he moaned. But she kept crying. "It's ..the oni" but before Dita could go on Hibiki freaked out ."Why are crying tell me!" He shouted. "It the..." Dita tried to speak but her crying stopped her.

As the two had this banter, they did not notice the sly Paiway recording them from the kitchen door. "I knew it" she thought running off to the meeting room where a meeting was already under way.

"He was peeping on me! I wear these costume to keep men from touching me. I don't think they should be allowed to roam so freely" shouted Celia at the other women. The women seemed more shocked at seeing Celia in person rather then her that's when Paiway showed up.

"You all have to see this" she said showing them all the recording she took of Hibiki and Dita arguing in silence for some reason. "See the men are being mean to Dita,we gotta stop them" said Paiway. At this the women seemed to rally. "I select Barnette to decide the punishment for the men" announced Jura. The women agreed,well apart from one who didn't seem to care.

"Meia, are you on the men's side or ours?" said Barnette feeling her leader position. " I don't take sides" said Meia calmly looking at barnette who stared at her as she sat there."But if your going to succeed, you can't let your feeling get the better of you" Meia said sitting back in her chair.

With those wise words Barnette rallied the women and they began their man hunt.

But they left in such a rush that they did not notice Nix hiding beside the door listening to them. "Hmph typical, I better see what's going on here" he thought entering the meeting room.

As he entered, Meia was getting up from her chair. "So I see your squads are having a merry old time hunting men" Nix said looking at her as she stood. "It wasn't my idea before you say anything dark heart" she replied angrily.

"Then tell me, why is it we're being hunted?" asked Nix in his cold way. Meia explained to Nix about the video of Hibiki and Dita.

"I see, I shall have to investigate this matter myself "he said turning to leave. "Good luck dark heart" she faced her again,he knew that smirk was a challenge."If you think your crew can catch me, your wrong" Nix said strongly. Meia just huffed at him. "I'm not doubting you, just be on your guard, there determined" she warned.

Nix nodded and stealthy left the room.

Meanwhile Hibiki was now being chased all over the ship by a hunting party. "What did I do to deserve this?" He thought running on. In the infirmary Duelo was trying his best not to laugh at Bart who was had dressed up as a women. Calming he was trying to fit in with the women.

"You told me that stupid story about the man with long hair and now look at me" moaned Bart. Duelo sighed at the mindless man. "The story was about fitting in with time Bart, not changing yourself" smiled the doctor.

Then to the two's surprise Hibiki ran into the infirmary. He stopped when he saw Bart's new look. He hesitated ready to comment but then continued running. "What was that all about?" ask Bart flicking his long fake blonde wig. Duelo shrugged but then the women showed up with guns. "Things have changed" said barnette pointing her gun at them. With that the two men surrendered.

Meanwhile Hibiki had ran to his vanguard in the hanger. "I'm not staying here another minute" he said as he got in and blasted off into space.

While this was all going on Meia, BC, Gascongne,Dita and the captain watched the action from a Monitor in the captain's meeting room. "We have to help"cried Dita, but the other women knew they could not.

"I can't believe it" said Meia shocked at the crews actions. BC just sighed as she watched. "Well it seems the man are heading for a ruff time" said Gascongne relaxing in her chair as they all watched Bart and Duelo lead to their cells by the hunting parties. But the captain just smiled.

"Captain how can you be so happy at a time like this?" asked Meia noticing the captain smile. "Hmm I just know one man who won't be caught" she said looking towards the meeting door with an old grin. They all looked to see."Mr Dark heart" smiled Dita with hope in her eyes.

In his arms Nix held the guard who was supposed to be guarding the meeting room door. "I'm very sorry captain" Nix said softly as he entered."She would not let me in,so i had to use

alternative methods. She will wake up within a few minutes "said Nix softly placing the guard on the meeting room table.

The captain shook her head."Hmm so what have you found dark heart?" said the captain looking at him with her old eyes. Nix produced an onion from his pocket. "This seems to be our problem starter captain" he said showing them. "I see" said the captain, she knew all about this.

"Who would have thought a vegetable could cause so much trouble" smiled Gascongne taking it off Nix. "I have more bad news" said captain looking at her monitor . Nix looked at her with his cold eyes. "It's soldier, isn't it" said Nix strongly, the captain nodded.

"Yes he left in quite a rage" she said showing them all the video on the meeting rooms monitor. "Should I give chase?" asked Meia. "No, it is his choice to he wishes to return he will" said the captain softly, but Nix had other plans.

"If it is all right with you captain, I will flee too" said Nix shocking everyone expect the captain who just smiled. She loved his crazy idea's. "Perhaps then I will catch up to Hibiki" Nix said turning his back to them. "I'm glad to see you know I cannot aid you" the captain said strenly.

"It is my choice to flee captian, I ask for you not to help me. Just assure me, my fellow men will not be harmed" Nix said looking at her over his shoulder. "I can not make promises" smiled the captain. Nix smirked back."Of course captain" he said leaving the room.

Meanwhile Hibiki was now on another flagship, where men and women lived together. "There It will get better soon" said a women as she tied a cloth around Hibiki hurt hand. "Um" Hibiki said babbling, he seemed to have fallen for the women that help him. "By the way the names Sara" she smiled. "I'm Ur um Hibiki" Hibiki said slowly stunned by his new found love.

During his time on the ship Hibiki felt happiness and unity, perhaps what he saw on the video was true. Maybe Men and women could live together.

Meanwhile back in space Nix had just escaped the ship in his van defender. "Computer search for any heat signals" he said tapping the computer controls. "I need to find our fleeing troop" he continued to say looking back at the nirvana as it grew smaller and smaller.

Meanwhile on the other flag ship another harvester flag ship was attacking. Sara was helping Hibiki ready his vanguard to launch. "OK your all set" she said, Hibiki smiled at her, but then bang!

Hibiki opened his eyes as he lay on the floor. A harvester ship had shot through the ship destroying a hanger wall and under it lay Sara. "Sara Sara!" shouted Hibiki fanatically trying to wake her, but she was gone.

Hibiki froze. "Are we really that fragile?" he said with anger and sadness in his voice.

It was quite a trip, but finally Nix picked up a signal. He looked ahead to see the other flag ship, he then looked to his other side ."What a harvester's flag ship here!" He said shocked. Suddenly the harvester's flag ship fired a huge laser destroying the other flag ship in seconds.

"Ah that power" said Nix shocked as he watched as the laser fade, leaving nothing of the other flagship.

Nix then looked around again as his sensor picked up another heat source. It was Hibiki's vanguard floating near by. Quickly Nix opened communication. "Solider, we must retreat" he said. But Hibiki's mind was set on one thing. "No.. No.. No!" he roared charging towards the harvest flag ship in his vanguard.

"Hibiki no" shouted Nix giving chase. However the harvester flagship emitted a blinding blast that engulfed both the Vanguard and the van defender. "Hibiki!" shouted Nix as the blast dealt serious damage to both ships.

Unable to move the two vanguards floated helplessly in space. But Nix with the last of his strength looked out his carcked cockpit window to see hibiki's vangurad being picked up by a familiar red ship. "No.. not you" Nix panted passing out from his injures.


	11. The Decisions Part 2

**Chapter 10 The Decisions part 2**

It was later that day, the nirvana had a surprise guest. At the docking bay of the Nirvana a door slides open revealing the tribal con man Rabat. With an unconscious Hibiki hanging over his shoulder and Nix holding the wall with his good arm to keep himself up. The women waited for them with guns drawn. "Did ya lose something?" Rabat asked with a cheerful smile as he tosses Hibiki to the floor.

Rabat goes to grab Nix next, but Nix knocks Rabat's hand away with his good hand. "Don't touch me creep" growled nix as he made his way out the lift, holding his right arm as it bleed onto the floor. Seeing hibiki Dita quickly rushs over to him. "Mr alien, please wake up" she begged sadly shaking him, but Hibiki was unconscious.

"So what do I get for being the hero huh?" said Rabat smiling. Nix stopped walking and turned around. "How about a black eye, it would go well with that stupid smile" growled Nix gripping his right fist. "Always the tough guy huh" smiled Rabat throwing his tooth pick at Nix's arm.

It hit and Nix cinched his face in pain. "See not so tough now huh" chuckled Rabat. But Nix just let out a little cold laugh."Funny I hope you enjoyed that" smirked Nix glaring at Rabat."Because next time,you won't get to live to mock me" he said before he fell to his right knee.

It was then Hibiki got up holding his head. "There's no time to be lying around, we have to move"he said trying to straighten himself. It was then he saw Nix. The once tall commander now was on his knees, holding his arm in pain. "I'm sorry" he said feeling he was to blame.

Nix just grunted as he got to his feet. "It's fine soldier, you have a free will. Just make sure it doesn't kill us" smiled Nix limping off.

It was then Rabat was taken prisoner and put in a cell with the other men. "Thank ladies" he said as they shut him in. Meanwhile Hibiki was given a chance by the women to speak to the captain. He explained everything that happened to Captain Magno.

"They're coming for us next, I just know it"he said sure of his instincts ."So what do you propose we do?" Magno asked him."We have to fight, if we don't we'll die. The people of Melanos fought with everything they had, I can't let them die in vain" the young teen argued. Magnio looked at the boy. She could see the sadness in his eyes.

"Is that the first time you've seen someone die?" Magno asked. Stunned by her question Hibiki placed his hand around the cloth Sara had given him. "I can't let her die in vein" he thought sadly remembering her.

"I understand little one" said the captain. "But I wonder what about your friend?" she said looking at the hurt Hibiki. "He wouldn't want help" said Hibiki looking at her . The captain smiled at this. "Perhaps" she said looking down at her monitor.

In the infirmary Nix was sitting on a bed trying to apply bandages to his right arm. With Duelo in prison Nix had to try to apply the bandage himself. "Not such a good sight for a leader" said a voice. Nix looked around to see it was Meia at the door.

"Hmph I should have guessed" said Nix hurt."Only someone like you would dare use my word against me" he said dropping the bandages again as the pain hit his arm. Meia walked over and picked them up. "Stretch your arm out" she said looking at him. Nix looked at her. "It's an order" she said coldly looking at him. So Nix did.

As Meia began to wrap the bandages around Nix right arm he spoke to her. " The enemy has grown stronger" he said cringing at the pain. "I will scout ahead to see them before the others arrive" Meia said finishing his bandage. "Just look after yourself leader" Nix said in a quiet voice slouching as he sat on the bed. Meiajust watched as he sat there. "You too Dark Heart" she thought leaving for the hanger.

Finally the alarm sounded and the dread assembled outside the nirvana.

Seeing Meia's dread already out, Jura asked her. "When did you get out?" Responding to her emotionless tone Meia told her. "I came out earlier to scout ahead and size up the enemy.

"Do you think we can beat them? I mean with just us?" Jura asked in a gloomy tone. Meia didn't answer, "just take charge of team a" she told Jura, "and barnette take control of team three" ordered Meia. The two pilots nodded and move out.

"Enemy formation approaching fast, we've never encountered this many of them" Belvedere announced the crew of the nirvana watched until . "Ah leave me alone!" Hearing Pyoro screaming for his life the bridge bunnies looked on as Butan chased the white navibot around. Catching Pryoro Parfet got an idea and connected him to the helmsman portal. "That should do it, let's see if it works" the engineer said.

After Pryoro was connected he immediately began acting strangely. His face flashed several times with waves of static before he hovered off the ground and began speaking in a dark mysterious voice."We are messengers from planet Earth. You are allowed to live only as provisions for the Earth's future" Pyoro said " Earth future?" said the captain.

"Yes, you must follow your destiny and give yourselves to us" the voice continued to say. But it was interrupted by another voice. "So your from earth, then I demand you cease fire" it said. The crew looked to see Nix at the bridge door still holding his arm. "Foolish human, why should we listen to you?" asked the dark voice."Because I came from earth"said Nix. The crew gasped.

"So you must be.. No matter you are a traitor " the dark voice said. "No I just like life with all my limbs" Nix said walking closer to Pyoro. " You mean nothing to us now earthling, our planet is suffering there is nothing more to be said. To ignore your purpose is useless" it continued. "If you fight this the only other alternative is complete destruction!".

"Then let the destruction begin, I'll enjoy taking you scum out!" shouted Nix. The dark voice laughed as it faded and Pyoro fell to the floor.

The bridge crew stared at Nix as he stood there. Then they began to whisper. "An earthling that impossible." "Maybe he's a spy for the harvesters!" The whispering got louder and louder until it came to the point where the women wanted Nix to be put to death!

Nix smiled then spoke. "If your going to kill me at least grant my wish" he said looking around at the women. They all went quiet. "I wish to be killed by someone my own rank, it is no honer to killed by someone without skill" he said getting to his knees.

With that the captain looked at BC. BC nodded and walked over to nix. She pulled a gun from her holder and aimed it at Nix's head. "Hmph a professional" smiled Nix lowing his head. It went quiet, even the battle outside seemed quiet to the crew that was watching Nix. That was until "Well now or never" said Nix coldly.

But then the captain stood. "I will not have blood on my hands, I leave this decision to the crew" she said looking at the crew. Silence came as the captain sat back down. The crew now had a decision to make. Was Nix to live and perhaps help them? Or was he to die, losing a person they all had grown close too? The choice was theirs.


	12. The Choice and the Retreat

**Chapter 11 The Choice and the Retreat **

"Wait we can't" shouted a voice. The crew looked around to see who the voice belonged too. The answer was Parfet. "I know Nix is an earthing, the very enemy we fought but" she breathed in, her nerves were not going to stop her.

"All Nix has done since he came aboard is not only be an ally but our friend. When we were in trouble he came" she said. the crew looked away they still we not swayed."He help me, he even help the Reg block" said Parfet trying to persuade the crew.

"I agree with ya there Parfet" said a voice. Parfet looked up to see Gascongne standing on the top deck of the bridge. "Sure he's an earthing, but he's been a big help, beside I respect anyone who can beat me" she smiled. The crew were now torn.

"I need an answer now!" ordered BC . The crew stayed silence."No I vote dark heart lives, ribbit" shouted the small Paiway with her frog puppet.

"I agree" said Parfet. I'm with those two" said Gascongne. The crew then made it decision. "Dark heart we want you to live" they said.

BC smiled as she put her gun back Into it's holder and helped Nix up. "Your lucky I almost fired just to see how you would escape" she said with a grin. Nix just smiled back her. "There was no escape commander, just luck" he said holding his arm.

"Now I say we realise the other men so they can help us" said captain. The crew agreed and with that BC and Nix headed down to the prison.

In the cell Rabat finally reviled what he was doing. "Your selling information to the harvester's" said Hibiki shocked. "Sure its a job besides if I help them they don't want my sexual organs" he smiled.

"You traitor" said Hibiki angrily. "No just smart kid" said Rabat taking off his heel of his left shoe. It turned out be a miniature device . As he pressed it, it deactivate the cell bars and their restraints freeing them. "Well I gotta go,see ya all later" he said running off.

Hibiki was now fuming with rage. "What do we do now?" asked Duelo confused. "We fight!" said Hibiki strongly as he ran off to the hanger. Meanwhile the battle had taken a turn for the worst.

The harvesters had begun their assault launching everything they had at the nirvana and the dreads. The harvest quickly gained the advantage in the fight easily splitting the dread formations and even more easily evading any offensive attempt the pilots made.

Back on the bridge BC had returned and the captain was listening as the pilots as they tired to form up and attack. "They certainly have become well adapted" said the captain starting to lose faith when more bad news came. The Nirvana is being pulled out of orbit" Ezra cried.

"What was that?" the captain asked her."The unknown planet at ten o clock is giving off a strong gravitational pull; the Nirvana is slowly being drawn in"said Ezra.

"Scans detect a high density of gas and electrical particles. If we get much closer there will be system abnormalities" Belvedere cried."Just what we need at a time like this" Magno growled as the ship continued tilting toward the gas planet.

But it got no better. While the dread team were in such disarray the nirvana was an open target. The nirvana shook and rocked as the shield began taking hits. Nix was in the infirmary with Duelo rewrapping his bandages as the ship shook.

"This is no good, I will not sit on the side lines" Nix thought as he got off the bed. "Wait you can't go" said Duelo but Nix ignored him. "Your senses must be off doctor" Nix growled stopping at the door. Duelo looked at Nix. "If you think I will sit aside like a coward, your are wrong" said Nix walking out holding his unfurnished bandaged arm.

Finally hope came as the door to the bridge slid open and Bart burst in."Sorry to keep you waiting. The genius and fearless navigator is here" he said cheerfully."You're late!" Magno yelled "Where the hell have you been during all of this?" "um ur" Bart said running to his position. Yet with this new hope the harvester brought more terror .

The dreads watched as hundreds of cube types combined together to form copies of the three Vandread's as well a copy of the van-defender. "What the hell?" Jura yelled seeing the new enemies. Meia knew what Nix ship was capable off and even Barnette seemed trouble by the copy. Even if they tried to attack the harvester's copy of the van-defender would just reflect it back at them.

"This is Meia, everyone return to the ship, we cannot fight in this state" she ordered with that the crew returned, but one ship shot past . "It's Mr dark heart" said Dita happily.

Meia was shocked, she opened communication to the van defender. "What are you doing!" she shouted over communications at him. But NIx just smiled. "Giving the ship another shield, I suggest you rest, your looking beat" said Nix stopping before the enemies.

"Return to the ship" ordered Meia but Nix cut her off and readied himself ."Computer time we'll showed my friends what a mere earthing came do" he smiled. "Level 5 reflector shield now!"he ordered as a huge blue shield appeared around the van defender.

Even with the new shield the enemy had clear shots at them, taking their opportunity to unleash a full scale assault. Many of the dreads managed to escape as it seemed the harvesters were more focused on Meia, Dita and Jura than the others.

"Keep retreating. We'll rendezvous with the Nirvana on the planet's surface" Meia ordered after evading an enemy. "Meia watch out on your right" Barnette cried. Jerking her controls to the left Meia avoided the enemy, but was quickly intercepted by the copy of her Vandread.

The fake Vandread swiftly pierced by, cutting off a wing from Meia's dread sending her into a high speed spin. Thankfully Gascongne was able to grab Meia's dread with the delivery ship and return her safety to the planet .

Retreating into the unknown planet the dreads were safe. The copy of Vandread Meia was destroyed under the immense pressure from the planet's gravity. Forcing the rest of the harvest fleet to end their pursuit.


	13. It's over right?

**Chapter 12 It's over right?**

Every crew member was now trapped within dark thoughts after their retreat. They're only choices were to turn around and fight. Or stay within the planet and die under the pressure. The peksis however wasn't making their choice any easier.

The peksis deteriorated at an increasing rate. The peksis would be able to preserve itself, but the Nirvana would be destroyed under the planet's gravity once its shields gave out. Even while this was going on Nix was still out fighting the harvesters.

He had not retreated, he had formed a shield around the planet. Determined to help his crew. "If want my crew, then get through me first" he growled as the enemy attacks began again.

In the infirmary Duelo was monitoring Nix heart rate from his monitor. "He's fading fast" he thought. It was then that Dita rushed in begging for any kind of medicine to make everyone cheerful again.

"I understand your concern Dita, but there isn't a medicine that can do that" Duelo explained calmly.

"Then what are we going to do?" Dita cried "Everyone is saying that it's hopeless and we have no chance of winning"."That's right" Paiway said cutting in "Its over we're all going to die".

It became a dark time on the ship, even the once brave leader Meia was puzzled about what to do. As she sat in the training room. But perhaps there was something else on her mind.

"I won't call it escaping with a hole in my arm". "Seems soldier got his little problem sorted". "It's fine consider it my thanks for being a good leader"."You got some spare time for an wounded commander". She opened her eyes. "What ever you doing, just come back safe" she thought holding onto her gift.

The facts seemed to get to Dita as she ran full speed off to her room,crying over the future that seemed so certain. In the modified hangar Hibiki was using Pyoro to plan an escape route, but Pyoro continued to shoot down each idea Hibiki came up with.

"Impossible" said Pyoro. "Oh come on, every idea can't be" hibiki said hitting another plan into proyo. "No impossible" Pyoro said again. BC walked over to him and tried giving him some advice to use boosters to help them escape the gas planet once its ignited, but that plan to would fall short.

Seeing the fierce determination in Hibiki's eyes BC gained an entire new view of the young pilot, he had truly changed greatly since they first came across him.

Just before BC walked away the speakers across the ship came to life and Dita could be heard crying from the other side. But as she spoke, she sounded like a leader rallying her troops. "I know things seem hard right now." she cried.

"It may even seem impossible, but we can't give up we just can't. I don't like seeing everyone so down, we have to believe in ourselves, Mr dark heart is still out there fighting, he's fighting because he believes we can win,we can't give up we can't!" she said before she began to cry again.

The speakers turned off and the ships mood began to change. Dita words seem to hit every heart on the ship. Was she right was Nix fighting for them? And if he was, why were they still standing here feeling beaten?

In the registry section Barnette was trying to put in a restricted order becoming more and more frustrated that the order was locked and unable to be put through."You might as well give it up" Gascongne said as she leaned against the doorway of the darkened registry .

"According to the rules you need permission from the manager to put that kind of order through me. That way hasty people like yourself, don't do something stupid" she finished ."Then hurry up and put it through" Barnette demanded.

"Why are you in such a rush?" Gascongne asked. "No one on this ship is blaming you for what happened. The only one blaming you is yourself"said Gascongne.

Barnette lowered her head, Gascongne was was blaming herself for everything their loss and their current situation. "There's no point in acting so tough" Gascongne told her.

"Everyone here pretty much knows all the good things about you as well as all the bad. And in spite of all that ,they still consider you a friend. Right girls!"Once Gasco finished speaking the lights in Reg central came to life and all of the order maids cheered in unison "Smile, smile".

Barnette was surprised to see everyone in Reg central so happy. "Come on, we got a member out there waiting for us so let's go" said Gascongne. Barnette smiled with a nodded.

Meanwhile Bc was telling the captain new formed Hibiki's plan. "I see send Parfet to coordinate with him, if were going, we're leaving as a whole" she said. BC nodded and asked the bridge to contact Parfet at once.

Back in the Vanguard's hangar Hibiki was becoming angry with Pyoro who shot down another idea until Meia interjected "How about using my dread? "That should solve your little speed problem. I take it you've given some thought to the next step as well?" Hibiki grinned arrogantly "Of course I have".

Just then hangar door slid open revealing Jura standing in front of the bright hall lights.

"So this is where you've been hiding" the blonde pilot said. "You're gravely mistaken if you think you've thought of leaving me out of this. You should know by now I have a nose for things that are interesting".

She smirked and soon Barnette soon arrived too and the four started to plan. But just as they began going over the plan, Dita rushed into the hangar and was shocked to see them all standing together.

"Well just don't stand there" Hibiki said without turning around to face her. "You're part of the master plan too ,so get ready". Smiling Dita said "You got it".

Then Hibiki looked at her again "One more thing" he said, Dita looked at him. "No slacking off" he said. With that Dita nodded and the master plan began. Out in space Nix's was taking a hammering from the copies of the vanguards and the copy of the van_defender.

"Arr you lot just don't give up" he growled holding his controls tight as the copy van-defender rammed into the shield.

However help was on its way. "Dark heart open your shield now" ordered a voice. Nix nodded and stopped his shield. As he did Barnette,Meia's and Dita dread flew out and started to engage the harvesters in combat.

Nix sighed happily as another voice came over his radio " Hey are you all right?" it said. Nix smiled. "So soldier, what's the plan" Nix smirked . Hibiki smiled and told Nix he needed cover fire to allow the plan to go on. "You got it soldier" said Nix grabbing his controls.

"Computer shift to attack mode" Nix ordered as the van defender arms opened reviling it's cannons again. "Lock on and fire" order Nix firing. While the dreads continued with the plan to ignite the core of the gas planet. Vandread Jura continued to take damage but Nix had a plan to deal with the copy of his ship.

"How about this ,attack mode 2!" order Nix. Suddenly from the van defenders legs more cannons appeared."Target locked and fire"order Nix has a barrage of shots flew from the cannons destroying some more harvesters but the copy survived thanks to its shield. "Hmph not worth it" he smiled as he began firing again.

But then a single missile flew through a small hole in the copies shield hitting the back of the van defender copy destroying it. "Learned it" said a voice over the radio to Nix. He smiled, he knew it was Barnette.

On the Nirvana the bridge crew watched on in tense anticipation as the dreads continued their work."We're almost there" Meia said monitoring their progress. "Parfet you're up" magno shouted down the radio.

In the engineering section of the Nirvana Parfet counted down from three before her and the rest of the engineers reversed the energy flow from the peksis dispersing the Nirvana's shield in the process.

"The peksis program has returned to normal values!" Belvedere announced. But outside the other vanguards copy were heading straight for the Vandread Jura, when Nix barred there way.

"Don't think you have me figured out yet harvesters" said Nix pushing down on his controls,as he pushed the copies back with his shield .

Finally the plan was ready. "Now let's get out of here" shouted the captain. She leaned on the front of her desk. "Bart turn the ship around now!" Captain Magno yelled .

"Yes mam" he said powering the ship up. The gas planet began imploding just as the dreads and the Nirvana cleared it, Vandread Jura separated being replaced by Vandread Meia and grabbing a hold of Dita's dread they sped through the enemy formation.

Meanwhile. "Hey dark-heart need a lift" said Jura seeing nix ship flicker with electric. "It would be appreciated" said Nix as the van defender held onto her dread. "You might need two dreads to lift this man's ego" said Barnette pulling her dread closer.

Nix smiled as the van defender held onto Barnette's dread and they zoomed off catching up to the nirvana. "Nix you need to come in" said Duelo calmly over the radio "Is that an order?" asked Nix smirking "Yes doctors orders" said Duelo cutting communications.

So Nix radio in to Burt. "Navigator I need to board, is the hanger open?" Nix asked. "Yes sir just come in hurry!" He screamed frantically as the Nirvana entered an asteroid field. With that the Van-defender and the two dread landed in the moving hanger.

Nix climbed out his van_defender and looked at Barnette and Jura who waited for him. "Nice work ladies I appreciate the help" he said before hobbling on. Before Barnette and Jura helped him to the infirmary.

As they walked monitors all over the ship showed the action. Vandread Dita was formed, then it transformed its shoulder canons into a harpoon which conducted the energy of the exploding gas planet. Just as the harvest mother ship fired its own beam.

Vandread Dita hurled its harpoon straight at the on coming beam dragging the conducted energy of the gas planet along with it.

When the harpoon met the harvest ship's cannon blast, it pierced through with the force of a super nova, continuing to fly through the massive laser before ripping through the harvest ship.

Resulting in an explosion, which consumed the remainder of the enemy fleet. Leaving the crew of the Nirvana victorious.

The captain smiled ."It the first time I've seen a star born" she smiled. BC smiled back there long battle had come to an end or had it.

Later that day Pyoro discovered a change in the harvest fleet's data and frantically brought it to the crew's attention. "The enemy has already discovered the destruction of one of their mother ships and have diverted the rest of their fleets from other solar systems to Mejere and Tarak" he said showing them on the bridge monitor.

"There's five of them!" Jura cried seeing the screen "We were barely able to get rid of one how are we going to defeat five of them?"

As the crew began worrying Hibiki got to his feet and spoke. "What's wrong with all of you? Are you just going to shrivel up in fear? We already know what we have to do. No matter how big the obstacle or how tall the wall, we have to climb over it to show proof of our existence. And to do that we have to take the path we have to take".

Looking over his shoulder to Dita he continued. "Isn't that right?"he said .she nodded,then Hibiki looked over to Nix who was standing by the bridges door. He smiled as Nix put his thumb up to him.

The battle had taken it toll on everyone and with a new threat ahead the crew decided to turn in. However one crew member was still up and working.

"You don't ever stop do you?" said a voice to the member working. "It's my duty" the member said. "Then something to keep you thinking" the voice said . Suddenly there was silence until flash! "Paiway!"

* * *

><p>Thank you for reading Vandread Another Leader. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.<p>

Please review as I would love to . Here are some question for you reviewers, I would love to have answers too.

Did you like the new character? What could be improved?,Do you think the romance is right between the characters? And of course, did having the new character work and make the story interesting?

I would also like to know what you enjoyed. "What was your favourite part? What did you think of Nix? Do you think he has a chance at love? And any other idea's you would like to share, I would love to hear.

Again thanks for reading and I look forward to your reviews.

The pokemon traveller


End file.
